‘We’ve just seen earthquake after earthquake after earthquake’: Santorini earthquake swarm intensifies but likely won’t trigger volcano

‘We’ve just seen earthquake after earthquake after earthquake’: Santorini earthquake swarm intensifies but likely won’t trigger volcano

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Greek authorities have actually closed schools and released emergency situation teams as a swarm of earthquakes magnifies near the volcanic island of Santorini. Researchers aren’t anticipating Santorini or other volcanoes in the area to appear, however they alert more effective earthquakes might be coming.

Individuals on Santorini started feeling tremblings recently as a cluster of undersea earthquakes broke out below the Mediterranean’s Aegean Sea. These little earthquakes– mainly magnitude 3.5 or less– continued to magnify on Monday (Feb. 3).

The biggest earthquake up until now was a magnitude 5, which struck 21 miles (34 kilometers) northeast of Santorini at 2:27 p.m. regional time (7.27 a.m. EST), according to the University of Athens’ earthquake tracking site

The Greek authorities have actually reacted to the earthquakes by buying preventive procedures on Santorini and close-by islands, all of which are popular traveler locations, the Associated Press reported

Santorini rests on the exposed part of a mostly undersea volcano called the Santorini caldera. Scientists think the earthquakes there are driven by the motion of plates, or plate tectonicsinstead of volcanic activity.

David Pylea teacher of Earth sciences at the University of Oxford who has actually studied volcanos in the Santorini caldera, informed Live Science that the earthquakes by Santorini are most likely triggered by a series of faults– or zones where 2 blocks of rock relocation or slip versus each other. He kept in mind that the earthquakes were “unusual.”

“The problem with this event is that we’ve just seen earthquake after earthquake after earthquake,” Pyle stated. “It’s all underwater, and so it’s really hard to anticipate what’s going to happen next.”

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The Aegean Sea rests on a little plate of crust, which is extending as the close-by African plate slides underneath the Eurasian plate. Pyle kept in mind that extending in the Aegean’s crust produces tensions that move the faults driving the earthquakes.

This isn’t the very first time Santorini has actually experienced a series of little, focused earthquakes, called an earthquake swarm. Lava moving below Santorini activated a swarm around the island in 2011 and 2012, however that occasion was less extreme than the continuous swarm, which is northeast of the island.

“The area that is being affected is a little larger [than in 2011 and 2012,] the rate at which the detected earthquakes are occurring is also larger, and the focus of the events is outside the Santorini caldera,” Pyle stated.

Kolumbo volcano

The majority of the earthquakes have actually happened in between another undersea volcano, Kolumbo, which is roughly 4.4 miles (7 kilometers) northeast of Santorini, and the little island of Anydros. While plate tectonics seem driving the earthquakes this time, Pyle kept in mind that scientists are uncertain whether there’s a direct link in between the tectonic activity and any possible volcanic activity at Kolumbo.

“We actually don’t really know much about the deep systems supplying magma to the volcanos,” Pyle stated.

Kolumbo volcano last emerged in 1650activating a disastrous tsunami that ravaged islands in the area. Santorini was formed by the earlier Minoan eruption in 1600 B.C., which was among the biggest volcanic eruptions in human history, according to Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory in New York.

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