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It seems that Europe and the Mediterranean Sea have had high seismic activity in last six months. Major events which I remember are:

  • 2020 Aegean Sea earthquake, magnitude of 7.0 Mww
  • 29 December 2020: Petrinja, Croatia, magnitude 6.4 earthquake
  • Many Etna volcano eruptions
  • 3 March 2021: Týrnavos, Greece 6.3 Mww
  • Many earthquakes in recent weeks in Iceland and an alert for volcanic eruption
  • Today (18 March 2021): 6.0 Mww earthquake in souther Mediterranean Sea, near Béjaïa, Algeria

What could this high seismic activity across Europe tell us?

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There is a nice tracker for global earthquake activity at https://www.volcanodiscovery.com/earthquakes/global-seismic-activity-level.html, although it doesn't conveniently allow you to look at regional statistics, as opposed to global or national records.

At a global level there doesn't seem to be any particular increase in events , although in a quasi random series clustering in time and space isn't unexpected.

The perception that there might be an increase is probably a reflection of human and media behaviour; when one event occurs it heightens our interest and the likelihood of noticing other events. The media are far more likely to report a small earthquake occurring in the immediate aftermath of a large earthquake elsewhere in the world, than they would have if it had occurred in isolation.

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  • $\begingroup$ And you can look at the individual mentions: Greek EQs of M6 are pretty normal - so much so, they'd only raise an eyebrow from me if they were >7.2 or so. Etna is one of the most active volcanoes near significant population. It would be more news-worthy if it was quiet for 5+ years. And are we seeing the same eruption? (I would say yes) Iceland gets a volcanic eruption every ~2 yrs or so - you only hear about them when international air travel is disrupted, or the tabloids are bored of scaring people with immigrants and switch to volcanoes for a day or two (see also, Yellowstone). $\endgroup$
    – winwaed
    Mar 18, 2021 at 17:18

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