The United States Geological Survey recorded a Magnitude 4.9 Earthquake at a depth of 10 km, roughly 7 km east of the town of Otok in southeast Croatia, slightly before 9.00 am local time (slightly before 8.00 am GMT) on Monday 18 November 2013. There are no reports of any damage or casualties arising from this quake, though it was felt over a fairly wide area.
The approximate location of the 18 November 2013 Otok Earthquake. Google Maps.
The coastal region of Croatia, and the other states of the western Balkan Peninsula, forms the eastern margin of the Adriatic Plate, a piece of the African Plate that has broken away and is now wedged into the southern part of the Eurasian Plate. This is being squeezed by the impact of Africa into Europe from the south, which is pushing western Italy, which sits on the Eurasian Plate, to the east, and Greece and Turkey, which sit on the Aegean and Anatolian Plates, to the west. This squeezing leads to uplift around the margins of the Adriatic Plate, in the Apennine Mountains of central Italy and the mountain ranges of the west Balkan Peninsula.
See also Magnitude 3.1 Earthquake in northern Macedonia, Eruption on Mount Etna, Magnitude 4.2 Earthquake in eastern Austria, Magnitude 4.6 Earthquake in western Romania and Magnitude 4.5 Earthquake off the Adriatic Coast of Italy.
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