by InTrieste
An earthquake with a magnitude of 3.0 struck northern Italy early Thursday morning, shaking the quiet provinces of Udine and Pordenone in our region. The tremor was recorded at 12:25 a.m. local time, with the epicenter located near the small town of Tramonti di Sopra, according to the National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology (INGV).
The earthquake’s epicenter was pinpointed just five kilometers from Tramonti di Sopra, a remote village nestled in the foothills of the Dolomites, and roughly six kilometers from the nearby communities of Socchieve and Preone, in the neighboring province of Udine. The quake’s hypocenter was determined to be approximately 10 kilometers beneath the earth’s surface.
Although the tremor briefly unsettled residents, there were no immediate reports of casualties or structural damage. Emergency response teams and local authorities swiftly mobilized, but by dawn, the region appeared to have avoided the worst. In a statement, the INGV confirmed that no aftershocks of significant magnitude had been detected in the hours following the initial tremor.
For residents of Friuli Venezia Giulia, an area historically vulnerable to seismic activity, the earthquake served as a reminder of the region’s fraught relationship with the earth’s tectonic movements. While Thursday’s quake was relatively mild, memories linger of the devastating 1976 Friuli earthquake, which claimed nearly 1,000 lives and left tens of thousands homeless.
Though minor, the quake is yet another in a series of tremors that have struck the Italian peninsula in recent years, underscoring the country’s ongoing challenge of living in one of Europe’s most seismically active regions.
Local authorities continue to monitor the area, with the hope that Thursday’s event will pass without further incident. Residents, meanwhile, are urged to remain vigilant, even as life in the region cautiously returns to normal.
