A strong earthquake Of magnitude 6.0 It was recorded in Greece off the island of Crete Today Thursday 22 May at 6:19 (local time, 5:19 in Italy). Epicenter detected at sea 58 km north-east of Elounda, on the northern coast of Crete and a depth of 62 km about. At the moment There are no particular damage to things or peopleAlthough the earthquake has been felt distinctly in many islands of the Aegean Sea and Athens. At the moment it seems that the authorities have not yet issued an alert tsunami. As often happens in these cases, the exact magnitude of the earthquake is still the subject of study. In fact, according to the INGV this would be equal to 6.0, while according to the USGS it would be equal to 6.2. As soon as more detailed analyzes are available in the next few hours, the slightly different values of the two monitoring centers in all probability will tend to converge.
But what is the cause Of this shock from a geological point of view? Greece is located in an area highly seismic, As confirmed both by the last earthquakes, and from the seismic sequence that has affected Santorini in recent months. The causes are to be found in the particular tectonic context of the Hellenic peninsula.
As can be seen from the image above, the area is dotted with rim of different color and size. The circles bigger represent shocks with high magnitude values, while the more looking for more dark they indicate earthquakes with more epicenter deep. The high presence of these circles indicates that, even historically, the area has been the target of numerous earthquakes.
These, to the macoscala, are linked to the subduction of the African plate below that Eurasian: this movement – whose speed is estimated to be about 10 mm per year – is sufficient to create numerous fault systems throughout the country, each of which can take action to create even rather intense earthquakes.
