An earthquake measuring 5.6 on the Richter scale occurred between the islands of Crete and Karpathos two minutes before Tuesday, December 10, 2019.
Its epicenter was in the sea area East of Crete, 40 km away from Sitia, 75 km from Agios Nikolaos and 123 km from Heraklio. It was 38km West of Karpathos.
It focal depth was approximately 60 km.
There are no immediate reports of injuries or damages on any of the two islands.
Two aftershocks of 3.3 R and 2.9 R followed within the next hour.
The tremor was felt across Crete, Karpathos,Soith Cyclades and Dodecanese.
The island of Crete has been rattled by seismic activity in the last ten days. The earthquake of 5.6 R was the sixth in the last 48 hours.
Seismologists appear reassuring. Efthimios Lekkas, head of the Earthquake Planning and Prevention said that the earthquake was independent from the other earthquakes that occurred in South-West Crete. He estimated that the 5.6 was the main tremor.
Gerasimos Papadopoulos, Research Director at the Geodynamic Institute, stated “we do not know whether this was the main tremor.” He added “when there are two major earthquakes in our neighborhood, such as in Albania and Antikythera, then the system is likely to wreak havoc. I think that’s partly what we see now, even though we don’t have very large magnitude.”
The seismic activity continued in the country.At 4:30 a.m. an earthquake of 4.1R stroke off the island of Kea in North-West Cyclades in the Aegean.
A 3.R tremor occurred at 10 a.m. in Nafpaktos in the Gulf of Corinth.
