Amid hundreds of minor earthquakes shaking Greece’s picture-perfect island of Santorini, in the Aegean Sea, in the past ten days, the island’s mayor tells Greek Reporter that the island “is a safe destination.”
“This is a phenomenon that will end. It cannot last forever. [These earthquakes] will last a few days, some weeks and they will stop…Santorini will become the way it was,” Nikos Zorzos, the mayor of Santorini tells Greek Reporter.
Zorzo’s opinion echoes most scientists’ view that the recent seismic activity could last for a while, from days to even months, while they have ruled out a massive earthquake with a magnitude of over 6 on the Richter scale.
Santorini’s mayor says that local authorities are fully prepared, in cooperation with the relevant ministry, to handle any emergency situation that may arise due to the prolonged seismic activity. He notes that while locals are not new to minor earthquakes in the area, it is understandable that this time, due to the duration of the seismic activity, they are concerned. Pictures of some panic-stricken visitors and local residents looking for a way out of the island by either a plane or a ship are broadcast across Greek media, and Zorzos says that “panic is a bad advisor.”
“We are in February,” he says. “During this time, economic activity on the island is very limited. That means that there are several people who stay here without working. So in order not to feel what anyone would feel during a natural phenomenon, the ‘fury of nature,’ that’s why I believe some leave.”
Asked whether he thinks that this prolonged seismic activity could affect the island’s multi-million tourism sector, he says “of course it could have an impact, but we’re still early ahead of the tourist season.”
Greek scientists rule out a massive earthquake in Santorini
Despite dozens of minor earthquakes that have been shaking the Greek island of Santorini in recent days, Greek scientists have ruled out a massive earthquake hitting Greece’s world-famous island, the President of the Earthquake Planning and Protection organization said.
The tremors, measuring up to magnitude 4.9, according to scientists, are originating from the active Amorgos Fault in the southeastern Aegean Sea, near the neighboring island of Amorgos. Experts and scientists have made clear the current tremors are neither connected to Santorini’s dormant volcano nor to any volcanic activity.
“It is certain that [the Amorgos Fault] will not produce an earthquake of a 7.6 magnitude on the Richter scale like it did in 1956 because in order to produce another similar earthquake it needs millennia,” Dr. Efthimis Lekkas, also a professor of Dynamic Tectonics Applied Geology, told Eleftheros Typos newspaper. “But there is the possibility that the energy that is being accumulated, it could produce an earthquake of 5-5.5 magnitude on the the Richter scale, but not of a magnitude over six. All scientists’ opinions converge on this.”
The recent seismic activity has brought back memories of a 7.5 magnitude earthquake hitting Santorini and other Aegean islands almost 70 years ago, the largest to ever be recorded in Europe in the 20th century. It was followed by a tsunami 25 meters high.
At least 53 people were killed and more than 100 were injured. 35 percent of the houses collapsed and 45 percent suffered major or minor damage. Almost all public buildings were completely destroyed.