The prescribed tragedy regarding the 7.7 Richter is referring to the Professor of Natural Disaster Management at the Technical University of Crete and Academician, Kostas Synolakis. According to him, there is the gloomy scenario that the death toll reaches 50,000.
“. That is, this rift has given many earthquakes even in the 20th century. That is, we are not talking about something that was unknown, it has not given earthquakes for 300 or 400 years. There was a great deal of danger (…), ”he said on the first program’s news radio.
“Obviously after such an earthquake 7.7 there is a risk that there is a very large aftershock that can reach 7, but certainly an earthquake on the scale of 6 to 7 will be a given. This is how there are such great earthquakes. Facility is usually a unit on the scale smaller, that is, if you have an earthquake from 7 to 8 (roughly I say), the aftershock is calculated from 6 to 7, most often from 6.5 or more (…). “
Fears for hundreds of thousands of dead
“As far as the death toll is concerned, it’s too early, but I’m afraid we’ll get close to 50,000 and maybe more and maybe we never know how many are the dead (…). I wish, however, these fears would not be verified, ”said Synolakis.
“At some point the Greek bow will give a big earthquake of 8 Richter”
Asked if a corresponding earthquake in this size could happen in Greece, the professor said that there was such a possibility.
“As I have said in the past, we have a very large seismic zone close to us, the one for the Greek bow, which starts from Asia Minor, goes south of Rhodes, south of Crete, west of the Peloponnese, west of the Ionian Islands. And in the Greek bow, we know that there have been an earthquake over 8 Richter (…) in the past, ”he said.
“So from the Greek bow at some point there will be a major earthquake. There is, of course, the rift of Northern Anatolia, which passes under Constantinople and comes to Greece. At best, these earthquakes, very large earthquakes in Greece, will be underwater. And I remind you that we had the earthquake of Amorgos in 1956, which was 7.5 to 7.7 again because of that time (…). An earthquake over 8 is expected to take place in the Greek bow every 600 or 800 years (…). So an earthquake of this size may occur, 8 Richter. Of course it can be done. Unfortunately, this is the geophysical reality. “
“In recession the earthquake in Santorini and Amorgos”
As Mr Synolakis said, the earthquake in Santorini and Amorgos is in recession. It has volcanic characteristics but it is not excluded again that the phenomenon will give strong earthquakes.
“(…) The question is whether it was volcanic or not. And it seems that everyone now agrees that it is purely the seismic sequence, the seismic flock, what we have seen was volcanic and it was precisely because it was moving into a vein, but it seems that it has stopped at the moment. It is in recession, so we have to prepare because it is certain that it will start again. We don’t know exactly when it will be, it will be months, it will be years, but we have to be better prepared next time (…). “
