Earthquake in Santorini, 9000 people on the run: what is happening and why we should know the history of this island

That fear is the dominant feeling in Santorini in these days is more than understandable. More than 550 earthquake shocks occurred between Monday and Tuesdaywith a magnitude greater than 3 of the Richter scale and epicenter under the seabed. And there had also been in the previous days. The seismic activity between the island of Santorini and that of Amorgos has become relevant for the population starting from Saturday. According to what theHandleGreek premier Kyriakos Mitsotakis invited residents to calm, but much of the population is on the run. Between 6 thousand and 9 thousand people, according to the Greek media, they abandoned the island. They are inhabitants of the island, but also seasonal workers and some of the few tourists. The images that arrive are those of long rows of cars and people who are crowded in search of a place on ferries and flights. Even if increased for the emergency, the means to leave the island are not enough to exhaust the requests.

SantoriniAnadolu/Getty Images

The director of the research of the Institute of Geodynamics of Athens, Athanasios Ganas, told the Ert state broadcaster that a similar event had not been found in the area with shocks of this frequency. The schools have been closed even if for now there have been no damage to homes. Hotels, always explains theHandlethey had to empty the swimming pools, to prevent the weight of the water amplifies the damage of a possible earthquake, and the residents were warned to keep away from the locations where there is the risk of falling boulders. A team of rescuers of the firefighters came from Athens to Santorini and one is in Amorgos.

The area is notoriously at high seismic risk. “It is known for past earthquakes of magnitude over 6, almost 7” explains Piergiorgio Scarlato, manager and volcanologist of the National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology. «The area is busty very active. There are busty structures that would be reactivating that this is connected with the resumption of the ancient Volcano di Santorini or with the Kolumbu, which is the submarine volcano active alongside, is more complicated to say, but worthy of attention for the scientific community ».

This interest comes from the historical importance that Santorini has for our civilization. “Knowing Santorini means knowing the history and civilizations of the Mediterranean»He continues Scarlato. «The eruption of Santorini destroyed the Minoan civilization by changing the commercial routes to the West. The Phoenicians and other populations who used this area move and new civilizations are born including the Roman one. The study of our history also passes through the relationship between men and volcanoes, here as well as in emigration from the British Isles to the USA who would have had one of his engines in volcanic eruptions in Iceland ». In the Mediterranean you have to go back millennia. Between 1650 and 1600 one of the most devastating explosive volcanic eruptions of European history took place here. The consequent tsumer and the ashes of the volcano are considered among the causes of the collapse of Crete.

“The scenario in which we hope is that of an earthquake of maximum magnitude 5.5 of the Richter scale, which should not create damage, and which constitutes the strongest shock, in order to start the gradual attenuation of the phenomenon,” he said EFTHIMIOS LEKKASpresident of the Scientific Committee for the assessment of seismic risk. A hope that also wants to be a signal for an obviously worried population. Scarlato explains: «Panic engraves in these hours for the population, but management is a question of civil protection. We are talking about homes that are hardly anti -seismic, not of great height. The fear can be that of the tsunami that there has been, in the past, even with waves twenty meters high. However, the Civil Protection is always managing any evacuations on the basis of means, availability and situation, presence of hospitals, roads, the possibility of getting a hospital ship ».

Source: Vanity Fair

You may also like