A 4.8 magnitude earthquake in the Aegean Sea rattled Greece at 7.03 am, April 30th, 2014. The quake was felt in Athens and woke up Greek islanders around the Aegean on Wednesday morning. The Athens Geodynamic Institute located the epicenter at 30 miles (49km) NNE of the Greek island of Andros at a depth of about 10 km.
In the past two months, several smaller earthquakes ranging in magnitude from 4.1 to 5.6 have hit Cephalonia, Kozani, Hydra and Pyrgos, although none caused fatalities.
The Mediterranean region is seismically active due to the northward convergence (4-10 mm/yr) of the African plate with respect to the Eurasian plate along a complex plate boundary.
Earthquakes have historically caused widespread damage across central and southern Greece, the island of Crete, Cyprus, Sicily and elsewhere in the region, especially Turkey.
In January, a series of strong earthquakes on the western island of Kefalonia damaged hundreds of homes and injured more than a dozen people.
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