Santorini, the most emblematic and tourist island of Greece, has accustomed us to its narrow wretched alleys full of tourists, its film sunsets in Oia, its blue domes and the infinite pools of the boiler. However, today it is in the news due to the massive exodus that is taking place Since January 24 The earth has not stopped shaking.
The last earthquakes have overcome 5 degrees on the Richter scale. Since Sunday, the Hellenas authorities warned about the risk of an earthquake of greater magnitude (although in no case greater than 6 degrees), dozens of families, temporary workers and tourists have abandoned the island by sea and air. However, it is not the first time that the island experiences a massive flight of its inhabitants; About 3,600 years ago, the island volcano began to show unusual behavior that the islanders interpreted as a danger sign and decided to leave their homes.
Months later, there was one of the greatest eruptions in the history of humanity, whose expansive wave came, according to the findings of the volcanologists, to places as distant as Canada or China. The volcanic explosion was the cause of the characteristic arc form That today has the island.
Two volcanoes
It is important to note that in the Santorini area there are two volcanoes: that of the boiler, known as Kameni, and that of Kolumbo, a underwater volcano located about eight kilometers northeast of Santorini. Both volcanoes have been monitored for years, and since the seismic alert began, periodic gase and temperature measurements are being carried out, as explained by Evi Nomikú, an expert volcanologist who has been studying the volcanoes of Santorini for decades, during an interview on Greek public television .
In the year 726 AD, an eruption of the Kameni volcano It generated great explosions that released millions of cubic meters of lava, ash and rocks to the atmosphere. The last important eruption occurred in 1959, and more recently, between 2011 and 2012, there was an increase in the magmatic growth of the volcano. Although the monitoring of the volcano has remained constant, and although there have been seismic movements and changes in the morphology of the boiler, the volcanologists say that there is no danger of an eruption at this time.
Volcano monitoring
Nomikú traveled to the island this Thursday to continue with the monitoring of the two volcanoes, using advanced technology such as GPS and seismic sensors to measure the gases emitted by chimneys and temperature. The expert requested calm, since, he explained, we are not facing a volcanic phenomenon, but tectonic. He also stressed that the epicenters of the thousands of tremors registered in recent days are near the islet of moods, located between the islands of Amorgós and Santorini, and that the entire fault has not been activated, but only a part of it.
The difficult navigation conditions, due to the storm of rain and wind that crosses the country, have temporarily stopped the tasks of analysis of volcanic activity in Santorini. However, as Nomikú explained, climatic conditions are expected improve in the next few hours, which will allow to resume monitoring over the weekend and publish the first data next Monday. “At the moment, we have proven that the emission of gases has increased in the Kolumbo volcano, which is normal when there is seismic activity near a volcano.” The expert emphasizes that there are no indications that an eruption will occur, although it stands out that it is essential to carry out an exhaustive monitoring of the volcano because everything is taking place in the submarine space and “the sea always hides secrets.”
Tectonic phenomenon
Last Sunday, a commission of experts headed by Effthimios Lekas, president of the organism for the seismic planning and protection of Greece, after analyzing the seismic phenomena in the Aegean area, said that the chain of earthquakes has a tectonic origin, not volcanic, caused by some of the underwater faults that cross this part of the cycled archipelago. It should be remembered that one of these failures, that of Amorgós, caused in 1956 an earthquake of great magnitude (7.7 on the Richter scale), the most serious of the twentieth century in Greece, which generated a tsunami with waves of more than 20 meters and left fifty deceased. «There is no risk of an earthquake of that magnitude at this time. The failures have a cycle and this type of phenomena happen approximately every thousand years, ”Nomikú concluded.
Main earthquake
Although in the last hours there have been several tremors of magnitude 5.2, they have shaken the Aegean, as Lekas explained, the main earthquake has not yet occurred.
At this time, experts contemplate three possible scenarios: tremors of the magnitudes collected so far during the coming weeks; That there is a greater earthquake that would calm the situation or, in the worst case, that an earthquake of six that causes landslides in the boiler and damage to the buildings that have not been adapted to the antisismic regulations. Civil Protection has decided to declare the state of emergency in the capital of Santorini «to deal with extraordinary needs and manage the consequences derived from the activity Seismic »in that city until next March 1, although they clarify that it is a preventive measure.
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