Greek authorities were put on alert on Saturday for the next two days after a 6.2-degree earthquake on the Richter scale jolted the southern Aegean Sea island of Crete.
The strong tremor which hit in early afternoon and was felt in Athens and other areas up to 300 kilometers from its epicenter off the western coast of Crete, caused minor material damages, but no injuries, according to local officials.
An elderly man jumped off a first floor balcony, but was not injured, local media reported, as the General Secretariat for Civil Protection was gathering data on the impact on buildings and infrastructure.
Samaria gorge closed for 24 hours due to the earthquake.
All authorities across Crete remain on alert, Deputy Governor of Crete Apostolos Voulgarakis said, as life returns to normal.
Locals and foreign tourists are still quite anxious, as more than a dozen aftershocks measuring up to 4 degrees on the Richter scale have occurred after the big earthquake which struck at 16:12 p.m. local hour.
Greek seismologists assure that there is “no reason of great concern.” Crete, as entire Greece, is a seismic prone zone and increased seismic activity decreases concern.
However, they can still not make any conclusions whether this was the main tremor and therefore suggest caution.
“We will have to wait and see what happens over a 48-hour course. It has been proved that if nothing big happens within the first two days after a big tremor, there is about 85 percent possibility that this was the main quake,” Professor Costas Makropoulos, Director of the Geodynamic Institute of the Athens National Observatory said.
In 365 A.D., an 8.3-magnitude quake on the Richter scale, according to estimates based on historians’ descriptions, caused a destructive tsunami, Makropoulos said speaking in Greek media.
Over the past six decades at least three strong earthquakes measuring more than 6 degrees on the Richter scale and dozens smaller ones have been recorded.
(source: Xinhua)
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