Another tremor was felt in Malta at 5.15 p.m. yesterday, with its epicentre just 12 kilometres from the coast at Birżebbuġa.

What it had in proximity, the earthquake lacked in strength because it measured 2.5 on the Richter scale, which meant not everyone felt it.

Recently, earthquakes have shaken many, not least because of the deadly tremors in Japan in March and in Spain yesterday (see page 16).

Seismologist Pauline Galea is quick to point out there is no such thing as an “earthquake season”. She said the recent cluster of tremors was mere coincidence and small quakes such as yesterday’s were quite frequent in this region.

An earthquake of a similar magnitude occurred in the same area on May 5, with the Easter quakes occurring further east off the island.

Readers in the south of the island reported feeling the quake, with Mariella Mifsud of Żejtun saying it felt like an underground train was passing beneath her kitchen as she was having tea.

Asked whether any more earthquakes were predicted, Dr Galea said there is no way of predicting tremors.

However, this statement of scientific fact did not stop some 20 per cent of Romans from heading out of the Eternal City just in case a 100-year-old prediction of a catastrophic quake on May 11, 2011 made by seismologist and astrologer Raffaele Bendandi turned out to be true.