sentences:  According to Gianluca Valensise, a seismologist at Italy's National Institute of Geophysics and Vulcanology, the earthquake was caused by a large, low-angle SE-dipping, blind normal fault, lying mainly offshore in the Strait of Messina, between plates.Its upper projection intersects the Earth surface on the western, Sicilian side of the Strait.Italy sits along the boundary zone of the African Continental plate, and this plate is pushing against the sea floor underneath Europe at a rate of 25 millimeters (1 inch) per year.