The inhabitants of West Crete – or at least the light sleepers among them – were roused at about 5.20 am this morning by an SMS from the 112 emergency service warning of an imminent earthquake. The tremor was predicted to be of 5.5 magnitude on the Richter scale and “light shaking” was likely to be experienced. The actual earthquake, when it arrived a few seconds later, was as strong as has been felt in the area for some years, and went on for a relatively long time – over five seconds.
Continue readingTag Archives: University of Athens Seismological Laboratory
Santorini 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.
Continue reading