The Maltese archipelago is situated on the mainly shallow water continental platform between Sicily and North Africa that lies beneath the Sicily Channel , separating the Ionian Basin from the western Mediterranean Basin . The islands lie around 200 km to the south of the subduction boundary between the African Plate and the Eurasian Plate . The platform is crossed by a rift zone formed of three grabens : the Pantelleria graben , that of Malta , and that of Linosa . The faults bounding these grabens are associated with most of the earthquakes that affect the archipelago , although some earthquakes with epicentres in Sicily may have damaging effects , such as the 1693 Sicily earthquake
1693 Sicily earthquake
1693 Sicily earthquake
Geology of Malta