A strong earthquake of magnitude 5.0 was recorded this afternoon at the 15:26 Italian (16:26 local) off the island of Cretein Greecewith an epicenter at sea 40 km from Kissamos and hypocenter at a depth of 21 km. The authorities are on alert for possible new shocks but at the moment there are no victims or serious damage. The earthquake was warned by tourists and residents in a large area of the Archipelago from Chania to Crete. The data on the magnitude is still awaiting confirmation by the world entities that deal with monitoring these events. The Italian Institute of Geology and Volcanology (Ingv) reports a magnitude of 5.0 recorded by the Ingv-Rome seismic room, while theUSGS (the American geological body) reports a magnitude of 5.1.
Earthquakes like this of prettiest magnitude are far from rare in Crete: it is in fact aparticularly seismic islandwhich only two weeks ago was hit by another Sisma of magnitude 5.0 and two months ago by Ben Two earthquakes of magnitude 6.0 May 14 and May 22nd. The high seismicity of the area is due to the fact that in that area the African plaque is literally sliding below the Eurasian plaque: this tectonic phenomenon is called subduction And currently it is taking place at a relative speed between the two plates of approx 10 millimeters per year. This movement has given rise to numerous fractures systems in the earth’s crust – calls fault – throughout the region. Once activated, these fault systems can release the mechanical tension accumulated by the friction due to the sliding and release it suddenly in the form of particularly intense earthquakes.
