Greece’s failures worrying seismologists – Newsbeast



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He writes

Stavroula Petaliou

In Greece they were finished and will be made tremors since it is the most seismic country in Europe. Although it occupies only 0.02 of the earth’s surface, there is an average of 20 to 30 daily vibrations, and this is because its active faults are hundreds.

«We have the highest number of earthquakes in Europe and this is due to the seismic state of our country and produces a high degree of seismicity.Explains the seismologist and research director of the Gerasimos Chouliaras Geodynamic Institute speaking with newsbeast.gr while emphasizing that “the” Greek arc “gives the greatest.”

What are the biggest and most dangerous faults?

“There are hundreds in Attica cracks and dozens around it that have had strong earthquakes in the past “, says Gerasimos Chouliaras explaining:

“Among the most dangerous are the large faults located in the Alkyonides area that ravaged Attica in 1981, the Parnitha fault and the relevant faults found around this area. For example, the Magoula rift and the Thebes “.

Because Athens is more in danger

“As we know, the highest percentage of the population of Greece is concentrated in Attica. Here are most of the buildings in the country. So here is the greatest seismic risk. Seismic risk has to do with economic risk, it has nothing to do with see with the seismic risk. Attica is not the most seismic region of Greece, it is in a zone of medium danger. It is not like the Ionian Islands, the Corinthians, the “Greek arc”. Attica is of intermediate seismicity “, he affirms and explains:

“But the buildings are taking damage. They kill, not the earthquake. So what we have to take into account is the buildings. Where many buildings are crowded, there is the greatest danger. The biggest disasters can happen there. At Attica we have a large infrastructure, large manufacturing facilities that are in danger.

The distance regulates the danger but also the size, that is, the length of the fault. Of course, there are small ones that can cause strong earthquakes. Like Parnitha that had a length of 12 to 15 kilometers and gave an earthquake of the order of 6 Richter “.

The “Greek Arch” and the great faults of Atalanta and Alkyonides

Referring to the “Greek arch”, Gerasimos Chouliaras explains that it is the most important. «It is huge, it begins in Corfu, descends to Kefalonia, Zakynthos, the shores of the Peloponnese continue under Crete and ends in Rhodes where it sinks.».

“The African plate collides and sinks below Eurasia. In this area the place is boiling from earthquakes. There is not a day when there is no earthquake in this great rift. The rift that begins in Patraikos and ends in the East of Corinth. We have the Aigio fault that caused the great earthquake of 1995 that continues in the east and it is the Corinth fault that caused the great earthquake of 1981 “, he says and adds:

«The largest fault measured throughout Greece is that of Atalanta.. It is 38 km long, we see it when we go to Lamia. “Her ‘mirror’ can be seen from the road.”

In Alkyonides the fault is 30 kilometers long, that is to say, twice that of the Patras fault, a fact that has even given us an earthquake of 7 Richter. The length of the fault also regulates the size of the impending earthquake. The larger the crack, the greater the risk. The big faults that we pay a lot of attention to are those of Alkyonides and Atalanta ”, he points out.

“Equally important is the expansion of the Anatolian fault that enters the Greek area from the Dardanelles and rips apart the Aegean. Coming from the Dardanelles, it enters the northeast Aegean Sea below Samothrace and ends somewhere in Skyros, which we it had caused the great earthquake of 2001 “.

How many seismic vibrations are recorded daily?

Every day the Geodynamic Institute of the National Observatory of Athens, which is the body that observes the seismicity of Greece and coordinates the national seismological network, which consists of more than 300 seismological stations throughout the country, registers in normal conditions 20 to 30 earthquakes that are not felt. These vibrations are usually smaller than 3 Richter.

«Earthquakes happen anyway. People mistakenly think that earthquakes stop and start. Earthquakes always happen, every day. There are only periods when their sizes increase and become more noticeable, there is commotion and we think that “something woke up.” But this is not the case, ”says Gerasimos Chouliaras.

We expect big earthquakes in Greece

“Large earthquakes will continue to occur at regular intervals. Every year in our country we have at least one or two sixes. This year we had three in six months. The 5.9 Richter in Parga and the two 6 Richter earthquakes that occurred south of Crete and north of Crete in Kythira. Fortunately, two of them took place in underwater areas, like most in Greece, so we do not understand them and they do not create problems. In Parga earthquake “That hit the area, we had several catastrophes and a post-earthquake sequence that lasted a month and a half,” explains the seismologist and Research Director of the Geodynamic Institute.



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