Living in Greece | #Earthquakes
Living in Greece | Earthquakes
*Photo:Limnos Airport
One of the paradoxes of living in Greece is that we still contend from time to time with earthquakes. On Crete, this happens very infrequently and therefore does not get in the way of enjoying all that good Greek food and wine, fresh air and comfortable lifestyle. Thankfully the latest major seismic activity that struck in Greece was at 12:25 p.m. local time on Sat May 24 - not on Crete - but in the northern Aegean Sea, southwest of the island of Samothraki, and was to the closest island of Lemnos and the nearby Turkish island of Gokceada. Conflicting reports put the magnitude of the quake between 6.3 and 6.9 on the Richter scale.
I only mention this as both the airports at Samothraki and Lemnos were damaged and arrivals/departures at those terminals may be slightly inconvenienced by closed off areas. One British woman leaving for UK after her holiday was slightly injured from tiling falling from the terminal roof at Lemnos Airport (LXS). She continued on her journey after being treated on the spot according to Limnos police quoted in the Greek media.
It appears the worst of the tremor was felt in nearby Turkey. The Governor of Cannakale province (including Gokceada) said that 278 people were injured. The vast majority of them could return home after treatment. Reports state that 2 churches and 10 mosques suffered damage of varying degrees.
Crete so far this year has been little affected by quakes, even though there are mild tremblings most of the time that do not warrant any attention. Crete is not known for being in the most intense area for earthquakes in Greece, although historically it had one of the largest ever in the year AD365 when Santorini was created and it is believed the then thriving Minoan civilization on Crete was almost destroyed.
Please be aware that a link at top of every page in the brits in crete forum and the main website, takes you to a 'live' relay of current seismic data from the Institute of Geodynamics at the National Observatory of Athens.
Note: Strong aftershocks continued May 25, one at 14:44 local time was of a magnitude of 5.2.
*Limnos Airport (LXS) Photo Credit: http://www.hcaa-eleng.gr/greek/airports/lemnos/lemnos_gr.html
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