ARCHIVED - 1,500 earthquakes detected in southern area of Alboran sea since April off Andalusia coast

This area lies just off the Andalusia coast where the Eurasian and African plates meet

A significant amount of publicity has been accorded to the series of seismic tremors registered in the Granada province throughout the last few months, the latest of which were reported last night (Thursday August 12), but according to sources from the National Geographic Institute (IGN), a different seismic series with epicenters in the Alboran Sea has accounted for more than 1,500 earthquakes since April 17, 2021.

The earthquakes have been felt in Melilla but also in points of Granada, Malaga or Almería.

The South Alboran series of 2021, according to the data provided by the IGN, began on April 17, going from registering fewer than between one and three earthquakes a day, to registering dozens of them daily and even more than a dozen in an hour, as occurred last Saturday, August 7.

Between January 3 and August 9, the IGN has located more than 1,500 earthquakes with magnitudes between 1.2 and 4.7, of which only 58 took place the first months, before the series began, with 92 earthquakes felt in Melilla with intensities between 2 (barely felt) and 3 (widely observed).

In the provinces of Malaga, Granada and Almería the maximum intensities have been 2.

Of the 1,553 recorded in the aforementioned period of time, there are 80 earthquakes of magnitude greater than or equal to 3, of which 15 are equal to or greater than 4, felt with an intensity of 3 mostly in Melilla, but also widely felt by the residents in locations such as Almuñécar ( Granada) or Torrox (Málaga) on the Andalusian mainland.

The IGN, whose experts cannot predict the evolution of the series, nor rule out an earthquake of greater magnitude, indicate that the seismic activity is occurring where the Eurasian and African plates meet, and movements occur frequently, as has occurred in Granada, which is within the southern and southeastern area, the area of "most seismic danger" of the Iberian Peninsula.

The IGN is part of the General Directorate of the Ministry of Transport, Mobility and Urban Agenda and manages the detection and communication systems of the seismic movements that occurr in the national territory and their possible effects on the coasts, as well as carrying out works and studies on seismicity and the coordination of seismic resistant regulations.