Santorini has been hit by a strong, shallow 5.3 magnitude earthquake, which is the strongest to strike the Greek island throughout current seismic exercise within the space.
The tremors had been felt in Athens on Monday night and measured a focal depth of 17km (10.6 miles).
Residents of the neighbouring island Amorgos stay on excessive alert after the most recent tremor, which adopted a reasonable 5.0 magnitude earthquake between the islands on Sunday night.
The vacationer hotspot has been rocked by seismic exercise since January and greater than 12,800 quakes have been detected by the College of Athens’ Seismological Laboratory.
Some residents have been seen patrolling harmful areas to discourage vacationers from taking pictures on cliffs.
Landslides have occurred in lots of components of Santorini as a result of frequency and depth of the tremors and specialists haven’t dominated out a significant earthquake.
Seismologists had been optimistic in regards to the depth of the quakes beginning to subside, however are actually involved they’re worsening.
A state of emergency will stay in place on Santorini till at the least 3 March.
Sunday’s quake was preceded by three smaller ones of greater than 4.0 magnitude, whereas the three on Monday morning had been additionally greater than 4.0.
Inspections discovered no harm to buildings in Santorini or Amorgos.
No accidents have been reported because of the earthquakes, which have numbered within the 1000’s since 26 January, however greater than 11,000 individuals have left the islands.
Faculties will stay closed on Santorini, Amorgos and several other different islands on Monday and Tuesday.
A group of the Particular Catastrophe Response Unit has set off for Amorgos from Patras with a particular earthquake rescue automobile, and technical groups are anticipated to examine the electrical energy community on the island.
Kostas Papazachos, a professor of seismology on the Aristotle College of Thessaloniki, informed Greek broadcaster ERT that the authorities needed to permit for the scenario to proceed for many or all of February.
“Let’s hope that we’ll slowly transfer in direction of a gradual de-escalation,” he mentioned.
“We should be a little bit affected person and see. Let’s hope that after a few weeks the phenomenon will begin to subside.”
He mentioned the potential for a significant earthquake had not been fully dominated out.
In the meantime the cruise ship Viking Star, with 893 passengers and 470 crew, docked on the port of Souda in Crete early on Monday morning.
It was on account of be the primary cruise ship of the season in Santorini. The ship modified its route primarily to keep away from cable automobile overcrowding in Santorini through the seismic exercise.
The strongest quake thus far was a 5.2 magnitude on Thursday. Six and above is taken into account extreme.
Greece is one in every of Europe’s most earthquake-prone nations, however scientists are puzzled by the present “clusters” of quakes which haven’t been linked to a significant shock.
Santorini is on what is named the Hellenic Volcanic Arc – a series of islands created by volcanoes – however the final main eruption was within the Fifties.
Greek authorities have mentioned the current tremors had been associated to tectonic plate actions, not volcanic exercise.
Scientists can not predict the precise timing, measurement or location of earthquakes.
From 26 January 26 to eight February, 2025, the Seismology Laboratory (SL) of the College of Athens registered greater than 12,800 earthquakes within the Santorini-Amorgos zone.
Extra reporting by Ruth Comerford.