Following the flurry of earthquakes of magnitude 4.0-5.0 Richter during the first half of the month of February, which resulted in the closure of schools in the Cyclades generally and an exodus of workers and residents especially from Santorini, the seismic sequence has shown signs of receding over the past 10 days or so, bringing hopes of a return to normality before the start of the all-important tourist season. Following meetings of the committees for assessing Seismic and Volcanic Risk, the decision has been taken to reopen the schools from Tuesday 4th March, resulting in a flow of returning residents, while hotels and restaurants are proceeding with preparations to welcome the first tourists in the middle of this month.
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More earthquakes off Santorini
The seismic activity in the sea area between Santorini and Amorgos is continuing, with two fairly strong tremors registered on Wednesday (12th February) of 5.0 Richter at 1.50 am and 4.9 at 8.30 am. The earthquakes have continued unabated over the past 12 days with no sign of a reduction either in their frequency or their magnitude.
Continue readingSantorini awaits a major earthquake
An unprecedented series of earthquakes has been registered during the past 6 days in the area between the islands of Thira (Santorini) and Amorgos. As recorded by the University of Athens Seismological Laboratory, by Wednesday afternoon (5th February) there had been a total of 419 tremors during this period with a magnitude of 3.0 or over on the Richter scale. Of these 71 were of magnitude 4.0 or over, and 379 at a focal depth of 10 km or less, making them more noticeable on the ground. There had been a small increase in the average magnitude over the 5-day period, with the strongest, at 5.0 Richter, registered just after 3.00 pm on Tuesday, 28.2 km south-west from Amorgos at a depth of 12.8 km.
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