Expert says eruption of Etna volcano linked to earthquake in Spain

Last Updated on September 12, 2020 by The Editor

This was the headline in Xinhuanet

So what does this expert say?

ROME, May 12 (Xinhua) — The eruption of the Etna volcano in southern Italy early Thursday is connected to the earthquakes that rocked the Spanish region of Murcia, killing 12 people and injuring more than 170 others, a seismology expert said Thursday.

“We are currently witnessing an intense seismic activity in the entire Mediterranean area from Spain all the way to Malta which has a certain impact on regional volcanoes,” said Domenico Patane, director of the Sicily office of Italy s National Geophysics Institute.

Patane said volcanoes are like windows from where underground magma surfaces and it’s normal that they respond to earthquakes occurring in a geographic proximity.

“The Spanish eastern coast hit by the quake, after all, lies close to Italy, in the Mediterranean. Both Spain and Sicily are on the same earth plate,” he said.

Woah! Stop right there. Spain and Sicily are on the same tectonic plate? I think not. Of course I am not an “expert” but if I look at this map of the tectonic plates of the world there seems to be a boundary somewhere there:


Ok, let’s take a closer look at that in Google Earth with the USGS plate boundary KMZ switched on.

Zoom in to that a bit and I see this:

I think that pretty much puts Sicily on the African plate and Spain on the Eurasian plate. What do you think?

In addition to that the two seismograph stations close to Etna, MN.CEL and MN.CLTB failed to register sufficient data to be able to make a magnitude prediction which rather puts this so called “expert” pronouncement into a bit of difficulty I think in my non-expert opinion.

Not much point in me linking to the USGS/EMSC data as in a few days they will be gone but here is CLTB on the USGS phase data (You can try clicking the image but the link may not work):

The ‘director’ should also be aware that this data on the CLTB station which is on Sicily came from his own Institute.

He would do better to stop attempting to fear-monger and stick to flying his desk. Expert? I think not!