Sicily lies on part of the complex convergent boundary where the African Plate is subducting beneath the Eurasian Plate . This subduction zone is responsible for the formation of the stratovolcano Mount Etna . Most of the damaging earthquakes occur on the Siculo-Calabrian rift zone , a zone of extensional faulting which runs for about , forming three main segments through Calabria , along the east coast of Sicily and immediately offshore , and finally forming the southeastern margin of the Hyblean Plateau , a carbonate platform in southeastern Sicily . Faults in the Calabrian segment were responsible for the 1783 Calabrian earthquakes sequence
1783 Calabrian earthquakes
1783 Calabrian earthquakes
1169 Sicily earthquake