Baku, January 16, AZERTAC

A strong magnitude 4.8 earthquake occurred under the sea near the coast of Peloponnese, Greece, on the morning of Tuesday at 7.20 am local time, according to Greek Reporter.

The quake had a very shallow depth of 14.5 km (9 miles) and was felt widely in the area, the Geodynamic Institute reported.

The epicenter of the earthquake was between the towns of Kranidi and Leonidio. No damages have been reported.

Vassilis Karastathis, deputy director of the Geodynamic Institute, noted that there was pre-seismic activity in the area. The new data will be evaluated in the next few hours, he emphasized and noted that the epicenter is in the sea, on the Kranidi peninsula.

“Since the early hours of the morning in an area that is not known for strong seismicity, we have had four earthquakes up to 3.5 Richter,” said Efthymios Lekkas, president of the Earthquake Planning and Protection Organization (OASP).

“It is too early to know if this was the main earthquake. It is an area that has little seismicity. We have no history of large surface earthquakes,” he added.

Last November a 5.1 earthquake rattled the island of Evia which was also felt in Athens.

In June 2023, a 4.8 magnitude earthquake hit near the town of Atalanti in central Greece, opposite the island of Evia.

Earlier in March a 5.2 magnitude earthquake rattled the island of Kythera in southern Greece.

Scientists warn that Greece could be struck by a large earthquake

Greece may be struck by a large earthquake like the one which has devastated Turkey and Syria, at least two Greek scientists have said, earlier in 2023.

The seismological forecasts were made during conversations about the impacts of the natural disasters in Turkey and Syria. The professors expressed concerns that a similarly large earthquake could affect Greece sometime in the future.

Speaking in two separate interviews, Professor Konstantinos Synolakis and Professor Costas Papazachos drew similar conclusions when assessing the history of seismic activity in the Greek region.

Greece lies in a highly seismically active region. The vast majority of earthquakes cause no damage or injuries, however.

In October 2020, an earthquake that struck the eastern Greek Aegean island of Samos and the nearby Turkish coast killed two people on Samos and at least seventy-five people in Turkey.

Greece is located in a complex geological boundary zone in the eastern Mediterranean between the African and Eurasian Plates. The northern part of Greece lies on the Eurasian Plate while the southern part lies on the Aegean Sea Plate.

The Aegean Sea Plate is moving southwestward with respect to the Eurasian Plate at about thirty millimeters (one inch) per year while the African Plate is moving northward, sliding beneath the Aegean Sea Plate at a rate of about forty millimeters (1.6 inches) per year.