Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis arrived on Santorini on Friday morning as earthquakes continued to affect the popular tourist island, for another day.
Accompanied by Civil Protection Minister Vasilis Kikilias, the prime minister first visited the fire service’s mobile operations center before heading to the island’s hospital.
Mitsotakis said that his visit aimed to assess the preparedness of the state mechanisms and urged residents to remain calm.
“We will continue to monitor the situation, but we are not here to make scientific predictions. I want to assure the residents of Santorini and the neighboring islands, who are facing these challenges, that the state mechanism is on their side. It is always better to be prepared and take preventive measures,” he said.
“We hope this phenomenon ends quickly and that the island can fully return to normal,” he added, emphasizing that preparedness and prevention were key.
Seismic tremors on Santorini, which was declared in a state of emergency on Thursday, persisted throughout the night and into Friday, with the strongest tremor, measuring 4.8 in magnitude, recorded shortly after 9 a.m.
The Santorini volcano and earthquakes
The Greek PM’s appeal to the residents of Santorini comes as at least 10,000 people have evacuated from the island in recent days fearing a strong earthquake. Most businesses have shut down, and airlines and ferry operators have increased the number of departures to accommodate the fleeing population.
Authorities have introduced safety measures, including halting construction, shutting schools on Santorini and the nearby islands of Ios, Amorgos and Anafi, and ordering residents and hotels to empty their pools to reduce the burden on the ground.
Given the volcanic history of Santorini, scientists are also investigating whether the continuous tremors could trigger volcanic activity.
Earlier on Friday, renowned seismologist Costas Synolakis, who accompanied Mitsotakis on his visit to Santorini, claimed that the earthquakes rattling the island may indicate the expansion of the island’s volcanic complex, potentially leading to the birth of a new volcano.
Synolakis, a Professor of Civil Engineering at the University of Southern California and a a member of the Academy of Athens, said that rising liquid fluids beneath Santorini suggest deep geological changes. “If confirmed, we may be witnessing, for the first time in recorded history, the formation of a new volcano.”
While many experts attribute the recent seismic activity to tectonic shifts in the Earth’s crust, rather than volcanic activity in the southern Aegean, Synolakis’ hypothesis suggests otherwise, fueling debate among the scientific community.
For the chronology of the seismic sequence in Santorini click here.