An Earthquake and Tsunami Devastate Messina

At twenty past five in the morning on 28 December 1908, a severe earthquake struck southern Italy along the narrow Strait of Messina. Registering a moment magnitude of 7.1 with a shallow focal depth of roughly nine kilometres, the tremor originated along an offshore blind normal fault between the African and Eurasian plates. The shaking lasted for 37 seconds, causing heavy damage across an area of about 6,000 square kilometres. Messina, a bustling Sicilian port, and Reggio Calabria on the Italian mainland bore the brunt of the shock. Estimates of the death toll vary widely, from about 80,000 in figures used by Italy's Civil Protection Department to well over 100,000 in other accounts, and it is often described as the deadliest earthquake in recorded European history.

The catastrophe unfolded while most inhabitants were asleep in their homes. Some 90 percent of the buildings in Messina and Reggio were destroyed, and the historic centre of Reggio was almost entirely eradicated. The exceptional vulnerability of the urban centres stemmed from their architectural fabric. Residential blocks rose four or five storeys on soft coastal soils, constructed with heavy tiled roofs, precarious cornices, and unreinforced walls bound by weak mortar. When the ground violently shifted, thousands of occupants were buried instantly under collapsed masonry.