1990 Carlentini earthquake

The island of Sicily is situated near the edge of a convergent plate boundary where the African plate is colliding with Eurasia. The denser African plate subducts or dives beneath the Eurasian plate. Subduction occurs offshore in the Mediterranean Sea along the Calabrian subduction zone. The presence of active subduction makes Sicily a seismically active island due to the resulting crustal deformation associated with the interaction of the Eurasian and African plates. ==Earthquake==

The largest shock measured 5.6 on the moment magnitude scale () and 5.4 on the Richter scale (). Focal mechanism of the mainshock suggested it occurred as a result of strike-slip faulting on either a sinistral, north–south striking, vertically dipping fault, or a dextral, east–west fault plane. Four foreshocks that were recorded beginning in early December to the day before the mainshock. Two foreshocks occurred on 3 December. On 11 and 12 December two foreshocks with magnitudes of 2.1 and 2.4 occurred. Damage from the earthquake was estimated at million. The earthquake damaged or destroyed at least 6,103 buildings. At least 5,133 of these affected structures damaged were in Syracuse, 929 in Catania and 41 in Ragusa. A manority of the 13,217 residents became homeless were from Syracuse. At a cemetery in Augusta, 12 coffins were displaced from their niches. ==See also==