A part of a pristine north Evia beach has been submerged following a 4.8 earthquake that jolted central Greece on Thursday.
According to photos and video published by the local site diavlosnews.gr, due to the earthquake, part of Myrlos beach, near the village of Yalta, suffered subsidence. North Evia is located opposite the town of Atalanti in eastern Fthiotida where the earthquake struck.
The local mayor confirmed that the beach has been damaged by the earthquake.
Despite assurances that a 4.8-Richter earthquake that jolted Atalanti in eastern Fthiotida on Thursday afternoon was not related to the Atalanti Fault – a large active fault segment in the Gulf of Evia – residents of the town remained uneasy, with many leaving their homes, and some of them even heading to the beach fearing the possibility of powerful aftershocks.
Efthymios Lekkas the president of the Greek Earthquake Planning and Protection Organization (OASP) appealed to local residents to keep calm, not to approach the old houses, but also areas where there is a risk of landslides.
“Residents of the area should not be alarmed, first because their houses have been built in anticipation of the seismic risk… And second, this was not the Atalanti Fault, so that is reassuring,” Vassilis Karastathis, the research director at the Institute of Geodynamics of the National Observatory of Athens (NOA), told state broadcaster ERT.
According to the Institute, the 3.33 p.m. tremor’s epicenter was 13 kilometers southwest of the town of Atalanti and its focal depth was 6 kilometers. It was also felt in Athens.
Scientists warn that Greece could be struck by a large earthquake
Greece may be struck by a large earthquake like the one which has devastated Turkey and Syria, at least two Greek scientists have said.
The seismological forecasts were made during conversations about the impacts of the natural disaster in Turkey and Syria. The professors expressed concerns that a similarly large earthquake could affect Greece sometime in the future.
Speaking in two separate interviews, Professor Konstantinos Synolakis and Professor Costas Papazachos drew similar conclusions when assessing the history of seismic activity in the Greek region.
Greece lies in a highly seismically-active region. The vast majority of earthquakes cause no damage or injuries, however.
In October 2020, an earthquake that struck the eastern Greek Aegean island of Samos and the nearby Turkish coast killed two people on Samos and at least seventy-five people in Turkey.
Greece is located in a complex geological boundary zone in the eastern Mediterranean between the African and Eurasian Plates.The northern part of Greece lies on the Eurasian Plate while the southern part lies on the Aegean Sea Plate.
Source: Greek Reporter