Earthquakes across the Mediterranean during the month of June were characterised by typical seismic activity in the region, predominately surrounding Greece, Crete and Turkey.

Two relatively large earthquakes with magnitudes 6.2 in the south of Crete, and 5.3 in northern Italy, struck on June 15 and 21 respectively.

Despite the distance of the epicentres away from Malta, the seismic energy released by the earthquakes is recorded by the seismograph running in Malta at Wied Dalam (station code WDD).

Locally the Seismic Monitoring Research Unit located three earthquakes within the Sicily Channel, including one very small earthquake a few kilometres off shore on June 22.

If you experienced earthquake-related shaking, you are invited to fill our online questionnaire at http://seismic.research.um.edu.mt .

When an earthquake strikes, a series of seismic waves is released. Different waves propagate at different speeds, creating a distinguishable seismic trace. Two major waves are identified as primary (P) and secondary (S).

Here we show the wavefront of these two waves from when the earthquake strikes on June 15 at 16:11:03. Above, each map is the seismogram recorded in Malta (station WDD) from the time of origin of the earthquake.

Note that it takes approximately two minutes for the first seismic signal (P) to reach Malta. A full animation showing the wavefront propagating from Crete to Malta is available at www.timesofmalta.com.