The boundary between the African and Eurasian plates is a broad and complex zone of continental collision. This collision has uplifted the glacier-carved Alps and produces numerous large and damaging earthquakes all throughout the central map area. This zone included two of the world's most deadly earthquakes of the 20th century: a magnitude 7.5 event in Messina (Italy) in 1908 with 120,000 deaths, and a magnitude 8.0 event in Erzincan (Turkey) in 1939 with 23,000 deaths. Most earthquakes in this region occur at relatively shallow levels, with only a small percentage of them deeper than 100 km. Superimpose the plate boundaries and notice the finger- shaped projection of the northern African plate in the area of the Adriatic Sea, which is being squeezed on both sides by the Eurasian plate.
