14-07-2025
Huge earthquake hits Spain holiday hotspot as buildings in dozens of towns shake
The 5.5 magnitude earthquake was especially felt in the towns of Vélez-Málaga and Torre del Mar in the Axarquía region, as well in parts of Málaga city.
A huge earthquake of a 5.5 magnitude has hit a popular tourist location in southern Spain this morning.
The massive tremors were felt in more than 50 towns, including the big tourist region of Costa del Sol.
The Axarquía region in southern Spain - home to Malaga city - saw most of the blast, especially in the towns Velez-Malaga and Torre del Mar. The area often experiences earthquakes, due to the coasts of Spain, Morocco, Algeria and Italy lying on a fault line, reports the Daily Star.
A tourist in the coastal town of Agua Amarga in Almeria told Spanish newspaper El País: "I was sleeping, and the whole house shook for a few seconds.
"There was an incredible roar. It woke up my entire family and the neighbours in the complex."
On the magnitude scale, quakes between 3.5 and 5.4 are typically felt by people, though they rarely cause major damage to structures.
Anything under 6.0 rarely inflicts serious damage on well-built structures, though weaker buildings may see some minor cracks or effects. In fact, the strongest quake near Spain in the last decade has been magnitude 5.4, making one of that size fairly rare for the region.
The magnitude of earthquakes are measured using scales like the Richter scale and the Moment Magnitude scale.
Although the Richter scale is still sometimes used, modern seismology relies more heavily on the Moment Magnitude scale for accurate measurements of larger earthquakes.
Last year locals in Gran Canaria were left startled after the island started rumbling at around 7:20pm local time on September 10.
Seismologists declared it as the fiercest in 60 years. Itahiza Dominguez, who works as a director for the National Geographic Institute, confirmed the fact to the media.
In several Spanish cities, such as Malaga, there has been a wave of protestors against tourists, with more than 15,000 protestors flooding Malaga's streets in June last year, riding the crest of anti-mass-tourism demonstrations across Spain during the summer.
Protestors waved banners with messages like: "We feel strangers in our own city" and "Malaga is for the people of Malaga, tourism forces us out."
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