The earthquake reportedly took place at 4:12 p.m. (1312 GMT) and occurred at a depth of 22.5 miles, according to the
U.S. Geological Survey. It could be felt throughout Greece, even in Athens, which is approximately 173 miles from the quake’s epicenter.
"The quake took place in an area known for its seismic activity,” Efthymios Lekkas, a professor of geology, told Skai radio. “It was strongly felt in Crete but also in the rest of Greece.”
According to the regional newspaper
Haniotika Nea, one person in Hania, a city 42 miles east of the quake’s epicenter, sustained minor injuries during the quake after jumping from a balcony. The man, who has not been identified, reportedly panicked and flung himself from a first-floor window, landing on a car.
Despite the region’s reportedly high seismicity, a female resident of Hania told
Agence Free-Presse that the duration of the quake was out of the ordinary. "It was very impressive because the shaking lasted some 40-50 seconds,” the woman, who identified herself as Vassia, said.
Local officials corroborated that report. "The earthquake was very strong and lasted long," Manoussos Lionakis, the deputy mayor of Hania, said. "Fortunately, there was no serious damage. The worst I've heard was some rock falls in a ravine west of the city. A bus was trapped, but no one was hurt. We have removed the debris.”
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| USGS earthquake shakemap intensity. |
He added: "Right now we have employees inspecting the buildings in the old city, but, apart from some cracked marble facades here and there, we have found nothing.”
The Associated Press reported that the earthquake prompted residents to run into the streets, but local firefighters said there had not been any emergency calls or serious damage. -
IBT.
Tectonic Summary - Seismotectonics of the Mediterranean Region and Vicinity.
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. This convergence began
approximately 50 Ma and was associated with the closure of the Tethys
Sea. The modern day remnant of the Tethys Sea is the Mediterranean Sea.
The highest rates of seismicity in the Mediterranean region are found
along the Hellenic subduction zone of southern Greece, along the North
Anatolian Fault Zone of western Turkey and the Calabrian subduction zone
of southern Italy.
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| USGS plate tectonics for the region. |
Local high rates of convergence at the
Hellenic subduction zone (35mm/yr) are associated with back-arc
spreading throughout Greece and western Turkey above the subducting
Mediterranean oceanic crust. Crustal normal faulting throughout this
region is a manifestation of extensional tectonics associated with the
back-arc spreading. The region of the Marmara Sea is a transition zone
between this extensional regime, to the west, and the strike-slip regime
of the North Anatolian Fault Zone, to the east. The North Anatolian
Fault accommodates much of the right-lateral horizontal motion (23-24
mm/yr) between the Anatolian micro-plate and Eurasian plate as the
Anatolian micro-plate is being pushed westward to further accommodate
closure of the Mediterranean basin caused by the collision of the
African and Arabian plates in southeastern Turkey. Subduction of the
Mediterranean Sea floor beneath the Tyrrhenian Sea at the Calabrian
subduction zone causes a significant zone of seismicity around Sicily
and southern Italy. Active volcanoes are located above intermediate
depth earthquakes in the Cyclades of the Aegean Sea and in southern
Italy.
In the Mediterranean region there is a written
record, several centuries long, documenting pre-instrumental seismicity
(pre-20th century). Earthquakes have historically caused widespread
damage across central and southern Greece, Cyprus, Sicily, Crete, the
Nile Delta, Northern Libya, the Atlas Mountains of North Africa and the
Iberian Peninsula. The 1903 M8.2 Kythera earthquake and the 1926 M7.8
Rhodes earthquakes are the largest instrumentally recorded Mediterranean
earthquakes, both of which are associated with subduction zone
tectonics. Between 1939 and 1999 a series of devastating M7+ strike-slip
earthquakes propagated westward along the North Anatolian Fault Zone,
beginning with the 1939 M7.8 Erzincan earthquake on the eastern end of
the North Anatolian Fault system. The 1999 M7.6 Izmit earthquake,
located on the westward end of the fault, struck one of Turkey's most
densely populated and industrialized urban areas killing, more than
17,000 people. Although seismicity rates are comparatively low along the
northern margin of the African continent, large destructive earthquakes
have been recorded and reported from Morocco in the western
Mediterranean, to the Dead Sea in the eastern Mediterranean. The 1980
M7.3 El Asnam earthquake was one of Africa's largest and most
destructive earthquakes within the 20th century.
Large
earthquakes throughout the Mediterranean region have also been known to
produce significant and damaging tsunamis. One of the more prominent
historical earthquakes within the region is the Lisbon earthquake of
November 1, 1755, whose magnitude has been estimated from
non-instrumental data to be about 8.0. The 1755 Lisbon earthquake is
thought to have occurred within or near the Azores-Gibraltar transform
fault, which defines the boundary between the African and Eurasian
plates off the west coast of Morocco and Portugal. The earthquake is
notable for both a large death toll of approximately 60,000 people and
for generating a tsunami that swept up the Portuguese coast inundating
coastal villages and Lisbon. An earthquake of approximately M8.0 near
Sicily in 1693 generated a large tsunami wave that destroyed numerous
towns along Sicily's east coast. The M7.2 December 28, 1908 Messina
earthquake is the deadliest documented European earthquake. The
combination of severe ground shaking and a local tsunami caused an
estimated 60,000 to 120,000 fatalities. -
USGS.
