There were 16,307 earthquakes recorded in 2023 on Italian territory and in neighboring areas by the National Seismic Network: an average of 44 earthquakes per day, almost 1 earthquake every 30 minutes. The strongest earthquakes, the INGV points out, were located outside Italian territory or at sea along the coasts, similar to what happened in 2022. Seismic events of magnitude 5.0 or greater occurred in Croatia and the southern Tyrrhenian Sea. Just off the Calabrian Coast, the strongest earthquake of the year, magnitude Mw 5.2 at 4:41 a.m., occurred on May 1, 2023. However, due to its high depth, 268 km, the earthquake did not cause alarm in the Calabrian territory. The total number of earthquakes located in Italy in 2023 is almost the same as in 2022 and has remained stable around 16 thousand earthquakes since 2019, down from the years 2016, 2017 and 2018 characterized by the seismic sequence in central Italy, (Amatrice-Norcia-Visso) that began on August 24, 2016.
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