This list of earthquakes in Greece includes notable earthquakes that have affected Greece during recorded history. This list is currently incomplete, representing only a fraction of the possible events.
Tectonic setting[edit]
Greece is located at the complex boundary zone in the eastern Mediterranean between the African Plate and the Eurasian Plate. The northern part of Greece lies on the Eurasian Plate while the southern part lies on the Aegean Sea Plate. The Aegean Sea Plate is moving southwestward with respect to the Eurasian Plate at about 30 mm/yr while the African Plate is subducting northwards beneath the Aegean Sea Plate at a rate of about 40 mm/yr. The northern plate boundary is a relatively diffuse divergent boundary while the southern convergent boundary forms the Hellenic arc.[1]
These two plate boundaries give rise to two contrasting tectonic styles, extension on east-west trending fault zones with strike-slip tectonics on SW-NE trending fault zones throughout west and central Greece, Peloponnese and the northern Aegean and contractional in the southern Aegean, continuing around to the Ionian islands. The south Aegean is the location of the volcanic arc and is characterised by extension. To the east of Crete along the Hellenic Arc, strike-slip tectonics with some extension become important.[1]
The strongest earthquakes historically are those associated with the Hellenic Arc, although none larger than about 7.2 have been observed instrumentally. The events of AD 365 and 1303 are likely to have been much larger than this. In mainland Greece, normal faulting gives earthquakes up to 7 in magnitude, while in the northern Aegean, strike-slip events with a magnitude of 7.2 have been recorded. Large intermediate depth (>50 km) earthquakes of magnitude >7 from within the subducting African Plate have been recorded but such events cause little damage, although they are widely felt.[1]
Earthquakes[edit]
| Date | Time‡ | Place | Latitude | Longitude | Fatalities | Magnitude | Comments | Sources |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 464 BC | Sparta see 464 BC Sparta earthquake |
37.08 | 22.43 | up to 20,000 | 7.2 | Ms | [2] | |
| 426 BC | Euboic Gulf see 426 BC Malian Gulf tsunami |
38.87 | 22.62 | The historian Thucydides concluded that the tsunami was caused by the earthquake, the first to recognize such a link | [3] | |||
| 226 BC | Rhodes see 226 BC Rhodes earthquake |
36.43 | 28.21 | Toppled the Colossus of Rhodes | [4] | |||
| 21 July 365 | Sunrise | Crete, Alexandria see 365 Crete earthquake |
35.07 | 24.95 | ~8 | Raised part of Crete 9 metres, causing severe damage and triggering a tsunami that devastated Alexandria | [5] | |
| 515 | Rhodes | 36.43 | 28.21 | [6] | ||||
| December 856 | Corinth | 37.9 | 22.9 | 45,000 | [7] | |||
| 8 August 1303 | 06:00 local time | Crete, Alexandria see 1303 Crete earthquake |
35.0 | 27.0 | 10,000 | ~8 | Triggered a major tsunami; severely damaged the Lighthouse of Alexandria | [7][8] |
| 3 May 1481 | 03:00 | Rhodes see 1481 Rhodes earthquake |
36.0 | 28.0 | 30,000 | 7.1 | Ms | [9] |
| 16 February 1810 | 22:15 | Crete, Heraklion see 1810 Crete earthquake |
35.5 | 25.6 | 2,000 | 7.5 | Mw | [10] |
| 30 October 1840 | Halki | 600(Official) | 6.5 | Mw | [citation needed] | |||
| 12 October 1856 | Rhodes, Crete | 618(Official) | 8.2 | Mw | [citation needed] | |||
| 4 February 1867 | 04:19 (Greek Standard Time) | Cephalonia | 224(Official) | 7.2 | Mw | [citation needed] | ||
| 7 March 1867 | Lesbos | 39.25 | 26.21 | 550(Official) | 6.8 | Mw | [citation needed] | |
| 3 April 1881 | 11:30 | Chios, Çeşme, Alaçatı see 1881 Chios earthquake |
38.25 | 26.25 | 7,866 | 6.5 | Mw | [11] |
| 27 August 1886 | Filiatra | 326(Official) | 7.5 | Mw | [citation needed] | |||
| 27 April 1894 | Atalanti | 38.66 | 23.04 | 255(Official) | 7.2 | Mw | [citation needed] | |
| 26 September 1932 | 19:20 | Ierissos see 1932 Ierissos earthquake |
39.8 | 23.8 | 491 | 7.0 | [12] | |
| 23 April 1933 | 20:05 (Greece Standard Time) | Kos | 178(Official) | 6.6 | Ms | [citation needed] | ||
| 12 August 1953 | 09:24 | Cephalonia, Zakynthos see 1953 Ionian earthquake |
38.2 | 20.6 | 476 | 7.2 | Ms | [13] |
| 9 July 1956 | 03:11:39 | Dodecanese | 36.9 | 26.0 | 56 | 7.8 | Ms Triggered a tsunami that affected the entire Aegean Sea | [14] |
| 20 June 1978 | 11:04 | Thessaloniki see 1978 Thessaloniki earthquake |
40.74 | 23.23 | 47 | 6.5 | Mw | [15] |
| 24 February 1981 | 20:53:38 | Gulf of Corinth | 38.222 | 22.934 | 22 | 6.7 | Ms | [16] |
| 13 May 1995 | 11:47 | Grevena/Kozani, Western Macedonia see 1995 Western Macedonia earthquake |
40.15 | 21.70 | 6.6 | Mw | [17] | |
| 7 September 1999 | 11:56 | Athens see 1999 Athens earthquake |
38.11 | 23.60 | 143 | 6.0 | Mw | [18] |
| 8 January 2006 | 11:34 | Kythira see 2006 Southern Greece earthquake |
36.30 | 23.36 | 6.8 | Mw | [19] | |
| 8 June 2008 | 12:25 | Peloponnese see 2008 Peloponnese earthquake |
38.029 | 21.464 | 2 | 6.5 | Mw | [20] |
| 15 July 2008 | 03:26 | Dodecanese see 2008 Dodecanese earthquake |
35.80 | 27.86 | 1 | 6.4 | Mw | [21] |
| 1 July 2009 | 12:30 | Crete see 2009 Crete earthquake |
34.14 | 25.29 | none reported | 6.4 | Mw | [22] |
| 24 May 2014 | 12:25 | Limnos see 2014 Aegean Sea earthquake |
38.11 | 23.60 | 1 | 6.9 | Mw |
References[edit]
- ^ a b c USGS (29 March 2010). "Tectonic Summary of Greece". Retrieved 26 July 2010.
- ^ Armijo, R., Lyon-Caen, H., and Papanastassiou, D., R.; Lyon-Caen, H.; Papanastassiou, D. (May 9, 1991). "A possible normal-fault rupture for the 464 BC Sparta earthquake" (PDF). Nature 351 (6322): 137–139. Bibcode:1991Natur.351..137A. doi:10.1038/351137a0. Retrieved 2010-07-25.
- ^ Antonopoulos, J. (1992). "The Tsunami of 426 BC in the Maliakos Gulf, Eastern Greece" (PDF). Natural Hazards 5: 83–93. doi:10.1007/BF00127141. Retrieved 25 July 2010.
- ^ Guidoboni E.; Ferrari G.; Mariotti D.; Comastri A.; Tarabusi G.; Valensise G. "Catalogue of Strong Earthquakes in Italy 461 B.C. - 1997and Mediterranean area 760 B.C. - 1500". Retrieved 2010-07-25.
- ^ Stiros, S.C. (2001). "The AD 365 Crete earthquake and possible seismic clustering during the fourth to sixth centuries AD in the Eastern Mediterranean: a review of historical and archaeological data". Journal of Structural Geology 23 (2–3): 545–562. Bibcode:2001JSG....23..545S. doi:10.1016/S0191-8141(00)00118-8. Retrieved 25 July 2010.
- ^ Ambraseys, Nicholas (2009). Earthquakes in the Mediterranean and Middle East: A Multidisciplinary Study of Seismicity up to 1900. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9781316347850. Retrieved 21 June 2015.
- ^ a b IISEENET (Information Network of Earthquake disaster Prevention Technologies) - Search Page
- ^ Papadopolous, G.A.; Daskalaki E.; Fokaefs A.; Giraleas N. (2007). "Tsunami hazards in the Eastern Mediterranean: strong earthquakes and tsunamis in the East Hellenic Arc and Trench system" (PDF). Natural Hazards and Earth System Sciences 7: 57–64. doi:10.5194/nhess-7-57-2007. Retrieved 26 July 2010.
- ^ NGDC. "Comments for the Significant Earthquake". Retrieved 24 July 2010.
- ^ Ambraseys, N.N.; Melville, C.P.; Adams, R.D (1994). The seismicity of Egypt, Arabia, and the Red Sea: a historical review. Cambridge University Press. p. 63. ISBN 978-0-521-39120-7. Retrieved 1 August 2010.
- ^ Altinok, Y.; Alpar B.; Özer N.; Gazioglu C. (2005). "1881 and 1949 earthquakes at the Chios-Cesme Strait (Aegean Sea) and their relation to tsunamis" (PDF). Natural Hazards and Earth System Sciences 5 (5): 717–725. doi:10.5194/nhess-5-717-2005. Retrieved 31 July 2010.
- ^ Pavlides, S.B.; Tranos M.D. (1991). "Structural characteristics of two strong earthquakes in the North Aegean: Ierissos (1932) and Agios Efstratios (1968)" (PDF). Journal of Structural Geology 13 (2): 205–214. doi:10.1016/0191-8141(91)90067-s. Retrieved 1 August 2010.
- ^ Papazachos, B.C. (1996). "Large seismic faults in the Hellenic Arc" (PDF). Annali di Geofisica 39: 891–903.
- ^ NGDC. "Comments for the Significant Earthquake". Retrieved 26 July 2010.
- ^ CALTECH (19 February 2008). "The Salonica (Thessaloniki) Earthquake of June 20, 1978". Retrieved 1 December 2010.
- ^ NGDC. "Comments for the Significant Earthquake". Retrieved 1 October 2013.
- ^ "Significant Earthquakes of the World 1995". USGS. Retrieved 2 April 2015.
- ^ USGS (6 April 2004). "Magnitude 6.0 GREECE 1999 September 07 11:56:49 UTC". Retrieved 25 July 2010.
- ^ "Magnitude 6.8 - Southern Greece: 8 January 2006 11:34:55 UTC", Earthquake Hazard Program, United States Geological Survey
- ^ USGS. "Magnitude 6.4 - GREECE 8 June 2008 12:25:30 UTC". Retrieved 25 July 2010.
- ^ USGS. "Significant Earthquakes of the World 2008". Retrieved 25 July 2010.
- ^ "M6.4 - Crete, Greece". USGS. Retrieved 2 April 2015.
External links[edit]
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