The 1783 Calabrian earthquakes were a sequence of five strong

earthquake An earthquake (also known as a quake, tremor or temblor) is the shaking of the surface of the Earth resulting from a sudden release of energy in the Earth's lithosphere that creates seismic waves. Earthquakes can range in intensity, from ...

s that hit the region of

Calabria , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = , demographics1_footnotes = , demographics1_title1 = , demographics1_info1 = , demographics1_title2 ...

in southern

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

(then part of the

Kingdom of Naples The Kingdom of Naples ( la, Regnum Neapolitanum; it, Regno di Napoli; nap, Regno 'e Napule), also known as the Kingdom of Sicily, was a state that ruled the part of the Italian Peninsula south of the Papal States between 1282 and 1816. It was ...

), the first two of which produced significant

tsunami A tsunami ( ; from ja, 津波, lit=harbour wave, ) is a series of waves in a water body caused by the displacement of a large volume of water, generally in an ocean or a large lake. Earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and other underwater explo ...

s. The

epicenter The epicenter, epicentre () or epicentrum in seismology is the point on the Earth's surface directly above a hypocenter or focus, the point where an earthquake or an underground explosion originates. Surface damage Before the instrumental pe ...

s form a clear alignment extending nearly 100 km from the

Straits of Messina The Strait of Messina ( it, Stretto di Messina, Sicilian: Strittu di Missina) is a narrow strait between the eastern tip of Sicily ( Punta del Faro) and the western tip of Calabria ( Punta Pezzo) in Southern Italy. It connects the Tyrrhenian S ...

to about 18 km SSW of

Catanzaro Catanzaro (, or ; scn, label= Catanzarese, Catanzaru ; , or , ''Katastaríoi Lokrói''; ; la, Catacium), also known as the "City of the two Seas", is an Italian city of 86,183 inhabitants (2020), the capital of the Calabria region and of its p ...

. The epicenter of the first earthquake occurred in the plain of Palmi. The earthquakes occurred over a period of nearly two months, all with estimated magnitudes of 5.9 or greater. Estimates of the total number of deaths lie in the range 32,000 to 50,000.

Tectonic setting

The southwestern part of Calabria and the eastern part of Sicily are areas of active crustal

extension Extension, extend or extended may refer to: Mathematics Logic or set theory * Axiom of extensionality * Extensible cardinal * Extension (model theory) * Extension (predicate logic), the set of tuples of values that satisfy the predicate * E ...

within the ''Siculo–Calabrian Rift Zone''. This 350 km long zone developed within the Apennine chain during the

Pleistocene The Pleistocene ( , often referred to as the ''Ice age'') is the geological Epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from about 2,580,000 to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was fina ...

and takes up WNW–ESE directed extension.

Events

February 5

This earthquake, with an estimated magnitude of 7.0, affected a large area including most of the southern Italian peninsula and shook the whole island of

Sicily (man) it, Siciliana (woman) , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = Ethnicity , demographics1_footnotes = , demographi ...

. Many villages were damaged and as many as 180 almost completely destroyed, with more than 25,000 casualties. A tsunami affected the coastline on both sides of the Straits of Messina, destroying the harbour walls at

Messina Messina (, also , ) is a harbour city and the capital of the Italian Metropolitan City of Messina. It is the third largest city on the island of Sicily, and the 13th largest city in Italy, with a population of more than 219,000 inhabitants in ...

. The earthquake had already caused widespread death and destruction in Messina. Homes were razed to the ground, the medieval Duomo was badly damaged and most of the historic buildings were reduced to rubble. Near the epicenter the ground shaking was so intense that people were knocked off their feet and heavy stones were found to be dislodged and upturned. Large

landslide Landslides, also known as landslips, are several forms of mass wasting that may include a wide range of ground movements, such as rockfalls, deep-seated grade (slope), slope failures, mudflows, and debris flows. Landslides occur in a variety of ...

s caused major destruction at Terranova and

Molochio Molochio () is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Province of Reggio Calabria in the Italian region Calabria, located about southwest of Catanzaro and about northeast of Reggio Calabria. As of 31 December 2004, it had a population of 2,700 and ...

but even well-constructed buildings not thus affected were almost completely destroyed, such as in

Oppido Mamertina Oppido Mamertina ( el, label= Calabrian Greek, script=Latn, Oppidù, ) is a town and ''comune'' of the province of Reggio Calabria in Calabria in southern Italy at about northeast of Reggio Calabria and about southwest of Catanzaro. It is the ...

and Casalnuovo. The earthquake is thought to have involved rupturing of the Galatro, Cittanova and Sant'Eufemia faults, which form the southeastern boundary to the Gioia Basin.

February 6

This magnitude 6.2 event occurred during the night following the first event and struck the area just to the southwest. Most of the damage and casualties appear to have been caused by a tsunami that was set off by a major collapse of Monte Pací into the sea near

Scilla ''Scilla'' () is a genus of about 30 to 80 species of bulb-forming perennial herbaceous plants in the family Asparagaceae, subfamily Scilloideae. Sometimes called the squills in English, they are native to woodlands, subalpine meadows, and sea ...

shortly after the earthquake. Many of Scilla's residents, frightened by the tremors of the previous day had moved onto the open beach for the night, where they were overwhelmed by the waves. The tsunami caused severe flooding in the town, reaching as far as 200 m inland, and there were more than 1500 deaths. The earthquake is thought to have involved rupturing of the Scilla fault, which defines the coast around Scilla.

February 7

This event occurred at about midday 40 km NE of the first mainshock on the 5th. Severe damage extended 15 km along the front of the Serre Mountains, levelling all the villages between Acquaro and

Soriano Calabro Soriano Calabro (Central-Southern Calabrian, Calabrian: ) is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Province of Vibo Valentia in the Italy, Italian region Calabria, located about southwest of Catanzaro and about southeast of Vibo Valentia. As of 31 ...

. The earthquake is thought to have involved rupturing of the southern segment of the Serre fault that bounds the Mesima Basin.

March 1

This earthquake was the weakest of the sequence and caused relatively little damage. The earthquake is thought to have involved rupturing of the northern segment of the Serre fault.

March 28

The final event of the sequence was of similar magnitude to the first and had an epicenter about 20 km east of the fourth, near Girifalco and Borgia in the Catanzaro Basin. The earthquake lasted for about ten seconds, and many villages were destroyed with many hundreds dead in Borgia, Girifalco, Maida and

Cortale Cortale ( Calabrian: ; ) is a and town in the province of Catanzaro in the Calabria region of Italy. Twin towns — sister cities Cortale is twinned with: * Erba, Lombardy, Italy * Ponte Lambro Ponte Lambro ( Brianzöö: ) is a ''comun ...

. Landslides were common and

sand volcano Sand boils or sand volcanoes occur when water under pressure wells up through a bed of sand. The water looks like it is boiling up from the bed of sand, hence the name. Sand volcano A sand volcano or sand blow is a cone of sand formed by the ...

es were seen, particularly on the banks of the

Amato Amato ( Calabrian: ; ) is an Arbëreshë ''comune'' and town in the province of Catanzaro in the Calabria region of Italy. History Amato is one of the oldest towns in Calabria. It is mentioned by the Greek philosopher Aristotle and by the Roman P ...

river. This earthquake has not been tied to a particular fault, but a recent re-evaluation of the intensity data indicates that the isoseismal areas are elongated NE–SW, suggesting faulting of similar trend to that observed for the other earthquakes in the sequence.

Summary of earthquakes

The earthquake parameters shown below are taken from the CFTI4 online catalogue.Online catalogue of strong earthquakes in Italy 461 BC to 1997 and Mediterranean area 760 BC to 1500
/ref> The epicentral locations are here related to the nearest large village or town.

Relationship between earthquakes

All the earthquakes in this sequence are thought to be linked by a process of triggering caused by stress redistribution following each individual event.