A powerful earthquake rattled the island of Crete with a magnitude of 6 Richter. The earthquake stroke at 03:51 Saturday afternoon, May 2, 2020, and was followed by another strong tremor of 5R half an hour later.
The epicenter of the 6R was in the sea area, 140 km south of the city of Heraklio, 90km South-SotuhEast of Arvi and 55 km south of Ierapetra in Sitia prefecture.
The epicenter was located the South Aegean fault line.
The tremor focal depth was at 10 km.
Residents of Heraklio told local media that the tremor was felt “strongly” and of long duration. Concerned citizens went to their balconies.
So far, there are no reports of injuries or material damage.
The earthquake was felt not only on the island of Crete but also in the broader East Mediterranean Sea in countries such as Egypt, Israel and Lebanon.
Map of felt reports received so far following the #earthquake M6.5 in Crete, Greece 40 min ago pic.twitter.com/FfKOXmG4oC
— EMSC (@LastQuake) May 2, 2020
The 6R earthquake was followed by a second one that stroke with 4.4R ten minutes later and a third one measuring 5 on Richter scale half an hour later.
04:01 pm: Epicenter of the 4.4 R was located 102 km South-South/East of Ierapetra and had also a focal depth of 10 km.
04:33 pm: Epicenter of the 5 R was 55 km south of Ierapetra and had the same focal depth.
Speaking to news website enikos, director of the Greek Earthquake Planning and Protection Organization, Efthimios Lekkas appeared reassuring.
“It is an area that produces earthquakes. We monitor the phenomenon, but we should not worry,” Lekkas said.
Commenting on the two earthquakes, Gerasimos Chouliaras from the Institute of Geodynamics of the National Observatory of Athens wrote on his Facebook account that the big distance to Crete is important to diffuse the energy.
he added that the 6R was most likely the main earthquake.
Chouliaras noted that according to preliminary information he had there have been no big material damages.
It should be noted that that international seismological institutes gave the magnitudes of the two big earthquakes with 6R and 5R, while Greek institutes with 5.9R and 4.48 R.
