Island of Lesvos jolted by quakes
The northeastern Aegean island of Lesvos was jolted by a series of earthquakes on Monday that began in the morning. There were no immediate reports of damage or injuries.
According to the Athens Geodynamic Institute, the first undersea quake measuring 5 on the Richter scale occurred at 7.46 a.m., 46 kilometers off the island’s southwestern coast, and its epicenter was at a depth of 14.9 kilometers. It was followed by a 4.5 quake a few minutes later. Another two followed, 4.5 and 4.8, before another measuring 4.5 shortly after 3 p.m.
Experts linked the tremors to the seismic fault responsible for the violent 6.3 quake on June 12, 2017. Speaking to the Athens-Macedonian New Agency, seismologist Costas Papazachos, professor of geophysics at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, said yesterday’s tremors were most likely aftershocks of the big earthquake almost 3.5 years.
“Obviously the current stimuli are the result of this sequence, at the western end of the fault,” he said.
“However, because the fault continues along the southern shores of Lesvos, we must be cautious about the sequence in the near future, to see if it will develop normally and disappear, or if it will continue any activity with different characteristics,” he added.
