A moderate aftershock measuring 5 on the Richter scale shook the island of Lefkada on Wednesday at 14:15.
A total of 56 aftershocks have been recorded so far deriving from the epicentre of the strong quake that hit the island on Tuesday.
According to the head of the Anti-seismic Planning and Protection Organisation, geology professor Efthymios Lekkas, the two major aftershocks jolted the island and were felt as far away as Corfu. The aftershocks originated from a different rift northwest of the island.
“The whole issue concerns me, it seems to be a remnant of the rift zone that did not break in 2003,” he said.
Reports of damage from the town of Lefkada after the two aftershocks were mainly to shops, while patients were evacuated from the “stressed” Lefkada hospital building, even some that were bedridden, due to falls of plaster from the walls.
Meanwhile, the Aitoloakarnania and Lefkada antiquities ephorate reported only minimal damage to the area’s monuments and museums – with the exception of the Agia Paraskevi post-Byzantine church in Athani, Lefkada that collapsed.
Minor damage was reported to the island’s archaeological museum, which remains closed as a precaution due to continuing aftershocks, where three prehistoric pottery vases were damaged within their display cases.
The quake also worsened pre-existing damage to the Argostoli Archaeological Museum that was caused by a the major earthquake that hit the island in 2014, while there was small-scale damage to 10 pottery exhibits that moved within their cases at the museum in Vathy, Ithaki.
Some 20 exhibits from the archaeological collection in Stavros, Ithaki suffered damage and there was also structural damage to the building. Both the Stavros and Ithaki museums will remain closed as a precaution, until the civil engineers inspect the safety of the buildings.
(Source: ANA-MPA)
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