Striking southern Italy on 8 September, the 1905 Calabria earthquake had a moment magnitude of 7.2 and a maximum Mercalli intensity of XI (''Extreme''). The first major earthquake of the 20th century, it severely damaged parts of

Lipari Lipari (; ) is a ''comune'' including six of seven islands of the Aeolian Islands (Lipari, Vulcano, Panarea, Stromboli, Filicudi and Alicudi) and it is located in the Tyrrhenian Sea off the northern coast of Sicily, Southern Italy; it is ...

, Messina Province and a large area between

Cosenza Cosenza (; Languages of Calabria#Northern Calabrian (Cosentian), Cosentian: ''Cusenza'', ) is a city located in Calabria, Italy. The city centre has a population of approximately 70,000, while the urban area counts more than 200,000 inhabitants. ...

and

Nicotera Nicotera ( Calabrian: ; ) is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the province of Vibo Valentia, Calabria, southern Italy. History The origins of Nicòtera lie with the ancient Greek city of Medma, which was founded by the Locresis of Epizephyrian Lo ...

and killed between 557 and 2,500 people.

Tectonic setting

The region of

Calabria Calabria is a Regions of Italy, region in Southern Italy. It is a peninsula bordered by the region Basilicata to the north, the Ionian Sea to the east, the Strait of Messina to the southwest, which separates it from Sicily, and the Tyrrhenian S ...

is located between the Tyrrhenian and

Ionian Sea The Ionian Sea (, ; or , ; , ) is an elongated bay of the Mediterranean Sea. It is connected to the Adriatic Sea to the north, and is bounded by Southern Italy, including Basilicata, Calabria, Sicily, and the Salento peninsula to the west, ...

s, where active extension is ongoing as a result of

slab rollback Oceanic trenches are prominent, long, narrow topographic depressions of the ocean floor. They are typically wide and below the level of the surrounding oceanic floor, but can be thousands of kilometers in length. There are about of oceanic tr ...

affecting Tethyan

oceanic crust Oceanic crust is the uppermost layer of the oceanic portion of the tectonic plates. It is composed of the upper oceanic crust, with pillow lavas and a dike complex, and the lower oceanic crust, composed of troctolite, gabbro and ultramaf ...

of the African plate as it

subducts Subduction is a geological process in which the oceanic lithosphere and some continental lithosphere is recycled into the Earth's mantle at the convergent boundaries between tectonic plates. Where one tectonic plate converges with a second pla ...

beneath the Eurasian plate. The initial result of the rollback was the formation of the

Tyrrhenian Sea The Tyrrhenian Sea (, ; or ) , , , , is part of the Mediterranean Sea off the western coast of Italy. It is named for the Tyrrhenians, Tyrrhenian people identified with the Etruscans of Italy. Geography The sea is bounded by the islands of C ...

back-arc basin A back-arc basin is a type of geologic Structural basin, basin, found at some convergent boundary, convergent plate boundaries. Presently all back-arc basins are submarine features associated with island arcs and subduction zones, with many found ...

starting in the

Miocene The Miocene ( ) is the first epoch (geology), geological epoch of the Neogene Period and extends from about (Ma). The Miocene was named by Scottish geologist Charles Lyell; the name comes from the Greek words (', "less") and (', "new") and mea ...

, continuing in to the

Pleistocene The Pleistocene ( ; referred to colloquially as the ''ice age, Ice Age'') is the geological epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was fin ...

. The location of the extension migrated eastwards overall, progressively affecting areas previously affected by thrusting. Extension is accommodated by normal faults on the Tyrrhenian side in Calabria. Many of the active rift faults border basins containing

Pliocene The Pliocene ( ; also Pleiocene) is the epoch (geology), epoch in the geologic time scale that extends from 5.33 to 2.58 The trend of

normal fault In geology, a fault is a planar fracture or discontinuity in a volume of rock across which there has been significant displacement as a result of rock-mass movements. Large faults within Earth's crust result from the action of plate tectonic ...

s extend southwards to the

Strait of Messina The Strait of Messina (; ) 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 Sea to the north with the Ionian Sea to the south, with ...

, where they occur on the Ionian side in

Sicily Sicily (Italian language, Italian and ), officially the Sicilian Region (), is an island in the central Mediterranean Sea, south of the Italian Peninsula in continental Europe and is one of the 20 regions of Italy, regions of Italy. With 4. ...

. Known as the Siculo-Calabrian rift, this active geological feature is characterized by its high seismicity of earthquakes up to 7.1. A series of major damaging earthquakes associated with this rift zone began in 1638, with a sequence of four events, followed by those in

1659 Events January–March * January 14 – In the Battle of the Lines of Elvas, fought near the small city of Elvas in Portugal during the Portuguese Restoration War, the Spanish Army under the command of Luis Méndez de Haro s ...

1693 Events January–March * January 11 – The Mount Etna volcano erupts in Italy, causing a devastating earthquake that kills 60,000 people in Sicily and Malta Malta, officially the Republic of Malta, is an island country in Sout ...

, five earthquakes in 1783, 1905 and

1908 This is the longest year in either the Julian or Gregorian calendars, having a duration of 31622401.38 seconds of Terrestrial Time (or ephemeris time), measured according to the definition of mean solar time. Events January * January ...

. Together these earthquakes ruptured almost the entire length of the zone.

Earthquake

The earthquake was felt strongly over a wide area including

Basilicata Basilicata (, ; ), also known by its ancient name Lucania (, , ), is an administrative region in Southern Italy, bordering on Campania to the west, Apulia to the north and east, and Calabria to the south. It has two coastlines: a 30-kilometr ...

Irpinia Irpinia ( Modern Latin ''Hirpinia'') is a geographical and cultural region of Southern Italy. It was the inland territory of the ancient '' Hirpini'' tribe, and its extent matches approximately today's province of Avellino. Geography The territ ...

Salerno Salerno (, ; ; ) is an ancient city and ''comune'' (municipality) in Campania, southwestern Italy, and is the capital of the namesake province, being the second largest city in the region by number of inhabitants, after Naples. It is located ...

and

Catania Catania (, , , Sicilian and ) is the second-largest municipality on Sicily, after Palermo, both by area and by population. Despite being the second city of the island, Catania is the center of the most densely populated Sicilian conurbation, wh ...

. It was felt as far away as western

Albania Albania ( ; or ), officially the Republic of Albania (), is a country in Southeast Europe. It is located in the Balkans, on the Adriatic Sea, Adriatic and Ionian Seas within the Mediterranean Sea, and shares land borders with Montenegro to ...

Isernia Isernia () is a town and ''comune'' in the southern Italian region of Molise, and the capital of the province of Isernia. Geography Situated on a rocky crest rising from between the Carpino and the Sordo rivers, the plan of Isernia still refl ...

and

Palermo Palermo ( ; ; , locally also or ) is a city in southern Italy, the capital (political), capital of both the autonomous area, autonomous region of Sicily and the Metropolitan City of Palermo, the city's surrounding metropolitan province. The ...

. The maximum felt intensity was estimated to be X (''Ruinous'') on the MCS scale. The mainshock was preceded by two small

foreshock A foreshock is an earthquake that occurs before a larger seismic eventthe mainshockand is related to it in both time and space. The designation of an earthquake as ''foreshock'', ''mainshock'' or aftershock is only possible after the full sequenc ...

s at 23:00 on 7 September and at 0:40 on 8 September. The mainshock occurred at 01:43 UTC and was followed immediately by two

aftershock In seismology, an aftershock is a smaller earthquake that follows a larger earthquake, in Epicenter, the same area of the Mainshock, main shock, caused as the displaced Crust (geology), crust adjusts to the effects of the main shock. Large earthq ...

s. The magnitude of the mainshock has been given a wide range of values, from 6.7 (equivalent magnitude from intensity observations by

INGV The National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology (, INGV) is a research institute for geophysics and volcanology Volcanology (also spelled vulcanology) is the study of volcanoes, lava, magma and related geology, geological, geophysical and ...

), to 7.41±0.29 from instrumental observations. The ISC GEM catalogue gives the event as 7.2 , while an estimate from a mapped fault in the Sant'Eufemia Gulf, based on a slip value of 2.3 m, gives 6.9 . A recalculation of instrumental recordings using seven stations, rather than the analysis of the records from two stations that gave the higher 7.41 value, gave a magnitude of 7.10±0.26, closer to other estimates. In the three months after the earthquake, there were 100 aftershocks, rising to 219 by the end of 1905. A further 95 aftershocks were recorded in 1906 and another 82 in 1907. The location of the earthquake's epicenter and the causative fault are also debated. Three main epicentral locations have been proposed, onshore on Capo Vaticano, offshore in the Sant'Eufemia Gulf or west of Capo Vaticano. The main candidate faults include the proposed Capo Vaticano Fault, thought to be part of the main NW-dipping set and trending SW-NE just offshore from the cape. Parallel to this is the Vibo Valentia Fault mapped onshore. Southeast-dipping faults have also been proposed, of which only the Sant'Eufemia Fault has been fully mapped out, based on seismic reflection data. Finally the WNW-ESE trending Coccorino Fautl has been suggested on the southern side of the Capo Vaticano, with a possible parallel offshore fault, the Western Offshore Fault. It has also been suggested that the earthquake was a result of a normal fault rupture within the slab of African plate oceanic crust subducting beneath Calabria, at a depth of 35–55 km. Several of the proposed models have been tested by modelling of either the observed tsunami effects or seismic intensities or both.

Tsunami

A small tsunami was triggered that affected the shores of the Gulf of Saint Euphemia, particularly to the north. Effects were also observed to the southwest of Capo Vaticano and as far away as

Milazzo Milazzo (; ; ) is a municipality () in the Metropolitan City of Messina, Sicily, southern Italy. It is the largest municipality in the Metropolitan City after Messina and Barcellona Pozzo di Gotto. The town has a population of around 31,500 inh ...

and along other parts of the coast of Sicily. At Bivona (now a suburb of Vibo Valentia) there was 30 m of inundation and a boat was pushed onshore. At Briatico anchored boats were carried onshore by 7–8 m, along with many dead fish. At

Tropea Tropea (; ; ; ) is a municipality in the province of Vibo Valentia, in the Italian region of Calabria. It is one of I Borghi più belli d'Italia ("The most beautiful villages of Italy"). Tropea is a seaside resort with sandy beaches, located on ...

several boats that were on the beach were carried out to sea. Further to the north at Scalea, there was more than 30 m of inundation and several beached boats were taken out to sea. The submarine telegraph cable connecting the

Aeolian Islands The Aeolian Islands ( ; ; ), sometimes referred to as the Lipari Islands or Lipari group ( , ) after their largest island, are a volcanic archipelago in the Tyrrhenian Sea north of Sicily, said to be named after Aeolus, the mythical ruler of ...

to Milazzo on Sicily was broken at a depth of 1180 m, presumably by a

turbidity current A turbidity current is most typically an Ocean current, underwater current of usually rapidly moving, sediment-laden water moving down a slope; although current research (2018) indicates that water-saturated sediment may be the primary actor in ...

caused by slope failure triggered by the earthquake.

Damage

The provinces of

Catanzaro Catanzaro (; or ; ), 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 province and the second most populated comune of the region, behind Reggio Calabr ...

(including what is now the

Province of Vibo Valentia The province of Vibo Valentia (; Vibonese: ) is a province in the Calabria region of Italy, set up by a national law of 6 March 1992, which came into effect on 1 January 1996, and formerly part of the province of Catanzaro. Its capital is the ...

and

Reggio Calabria Reggio di Calabria (; ), commonly and officially referred to as Reggio Calabria, or simply Reggio by its inhabitants, is the List of cities in Italy, largest city in Calabria as well as the seat of the Metropolitan City of Reggio Calabria. As ...

were the most affected parts of Calabria. 14,000 houses were damaged, with 8,220 houses being destroyed, 6,186 in Catanzaro, 1,000 in Cosenza and 1,034 in

. In the Vibo Valentia area, the towns of Parghelia, Piscopio and

Stefanaconi Stefanaconi () () is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Province of Vibo Valentia in the Italy, Italian region Calabria, located about southwest of Catanzaro and about east of Vibo Valentia. As of 31 December 2004, it had a population of 2,477 an ...

and several smaller towns, were almost completely destroyed. Many of the houses in the epicentral area were built of "breste" (

adobe Adobe (from arabic: الطوب Attub ; ) is a building material made from earth and organic materials. is Spanish for mudbrick. In some English-speaking regions of Spanish heritage, such as the Southwestern United States, the term is use ...

type) construction and these performed very poorly in the earthquake. The earthquake triggered many landslides, with at least 42 sites being recorded. The village of

Martirano Martirano is a village and ''comune'' of the province of Catanzaro in the Calabria region of Italy. History Local historians believe that Martirano was built on the ruins of Mamertum, a city of the Roman Empire. Martirano, also known as Marturan ...

, which has been repeatedly affected by landslides triggered by earthquakes in the past, had one side destroyed by a landslide. Evidence of ground fissures and

liquefaction In materials science, liquefaction is a process that generates a liquid from a solid or a gas or that generates a non-liquid phase which behaves in accordance with fluid dynamics. It occurs both naturally and artificially. As an example of t ...

was widespread and many streams and springs were changed in both flow rate and temperature, immediately after the earthquake. Mario Baratta, writing in 1906, observed that level of damage was related to the underlying geology. He noted that structures built on limestone,

molasse __NOTOC__ In geology, "molasse" () are sandstones, shales and conglomerates that form as terrestrial or shallow marine deposits in front of rising mountain chains. The molasse deposits accumulate in a foreland basin, especially on top of flys ...

breccia Breccia ( , ; ) is a rock composed of large angular broken fragments of minerals or Rock (geology), rocks cementation (geology), cemented together by a fine-grained matrix (geology), matrix. The word has its origins in the Italian language ...

and

schist Schist ( ) is a medium-grained metamorphic rock generally derived from fine-grained sedimentary rock, like shale. It shows pronounced ''schistosity'' (named for the rock). This means that the rock is composed of mineral grains easily seen with a l ...

suffered the greatest damage, while those constructed on granite fared much better.

Aftermath

Immediate aid was organised by the

Prefects Prefect (from the Latin ''praefectus'', substantive adjectival form of ''praeficere'': "put in front", meaning in charge) is a magisterial title of varying definition, but essentially refers to the leader of an administrative area. A prefect' ...

, using civil and military engineers and local medical and military personnel. Temporary accommodation was provided for some of the people made homeless with the building of wooden shacks. In October 1906 the Prefect of Cantanzaro reported that many families remained homeless, while those in the shacks were affected by their poor quality, with both wind and rain being able to penetrate these structures. Other families stayed in ruined houses in a dangerous condition, using a few poorly repaired rooms. He also stated that many farmers had emigrated from the area. On 25 June a new state law came into force to provide assistance for the most affected areas, including the waiving of some tax instalments. Some settlements, such as Favelloni and

Castiglione Cosentino Castiglione Cosentino is a town and ''comune'' in the province of Cosenza in the Calabria region of southern Italy. Geography Located in the north of the suburban area of Cosenza, Castiglione borders with the municipalities of Rende, Rose, Calabr ...

were moved to new sites. The part of Martirano that was levelled by the landslide was rebuilt on a new site nearby.

References

External links

M 7.2 – Sicily, Italy
–

United States Geological Survey The United States Geological Survey (USGS), founded as the Geological Survey, is an agency of the U.S. Department of the Interior whose work spans the disciplines of biology, geography, geology, and hydrology. The agency was founded on Mar ...

*
Page for this earthquake from the CFTI5MED catalogue
{{DEFAULTSORT:Calabria earthquake 1905 earthquakes 1905 Calabria 1905 in Italy History of Calabria 1900s tsunamis September 1905 in Europe 1900s disasters in Italy 1905 disasters in Europe