The tremors hit in the Strait of Sicily, or Sicilian Channel, which separate it from north Africa, about 60km (37 miles) south of of the province of Ragusa Modica.
A 3.9 magnitude earthquake was recorded at 2.13am today, and was quickly followed by further earthquakes measuring 2.8, 2.6 and 2.59 respectively.
They came hard on the heels of two others measuring 3.5 and 3.6, which occurred in the area over the previous 48 hours.
No injuries were reported but experts say the flurry of activity may not be over.
Eugenio Privitera, director of the Etneo Observatory of the National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology (INGV) said: “The area of the Sicilian Channel is very large and there is a very complex and little known fault system, generated by the thrust of the African plate against the Eurasian one.
“In this system, there are two faults that could be linked to the current seismic sequence: the Scicli fault and that of Capo Passero.
“It is still not clear which of the two is linked to these earthquakes.
“We can not even foresee the evolution of the sequence, but precisely for this reason we can not rule out that other shocks will occur.”
At the beginning of this year, 29 people were killed by an avalanche at Hotel Rigopiano near Pescara after the Abruzzo region was caught by aftershocks from earthquakes in central Italy.
There have been dozens of quakes in recent years, most, like the most recent ones, on the low order of magnitude. Only three have measured in excess of 6.0 magnitude.
The Italian Civil Protection department said: “Italy is one of the countries in the Mediterranean with the highest seismic risk.”
The reason for this is the country lies where the African and Eurasian tectonic plates converge, it explained.
The department added: “The highest seismicity is concentrated in the central-southern part of the peninsula, along the Apennine ridge, in Calabria and Sicily and in some northern areas, like Friuli, part of Veneto and western Liguria.”