Santorini: 5 Richter yesterday, the largest earthquake in recent days - New measurements, what to expect

Today, if the weather conditions are favorable, the scientific team of Professor of Geological Oceanography of the National University of Athens Evi Nomikou will receive the portable underwater seismographs that she had placed a few days ago, inside the Caldera, in order to see the data that will show the microseismicity of the area.

The data from the underwater seismographs
The data from these underwater seismographs will be combined with those from the land-based ones to be studied and to have a more accurate picture of the seismicity of the area. Since yesterday, the Army Geographic Service has been making measurements for the unprecedented seismic crisis in collaboration with the Physical Geography Laboratory of the National University of Athens and the Dionysos Satellite Center of the National Technical University of Athens.

In her post, Ms. Nomikou said: "The research team will perform GNSS satellite observations at approximately 20 triangulated points in the prefectures of Santorini, Thirasia, and Kammeni. The purpose of the measurements is to combine them with data from permanent GNSS stations of the complex for the safer detection of micro-movements of the solid crust of the earth in the area.

In addition, a minimum of 50 gravity stations distributed across the above islands will be measured, to visualize the gravitational field of the area and detect temporal gravity changes.
From the combination of the above measurements, conclusions can be drawn about changes in the subsoil of the area, as well as the change in the mass or density of the rocks in the measurement area.

Finally, a photogrammetric survey will be carried out with a thermal camera using UAVs, in areas indicated by NKUA, to detect or certify the location of thermal fields in the area.

The above bodies will continue to assist with the execution of geodetic and geophysical observations and data analyses in order to monitor the existing seismic activity and assess the seismic disturbance in the island complex of Santorini.

Evi Nomikou, in her statements to SKAI, reiterated that "the seismic activity located northeast of Santorini is not associated with any volcanic eruption", while she revealed that foreign researchers are expected in March to assist in the monitoring of the wider volcano-seismic area. “Some international oceanographic expeditions will come in March, where foreign scientists are now joining forces and foreign oceanographic ships will come to collect more data and offer it to the Greek scientific community,” he noted, among other things, clarifying that he does not believe that we will reach this situation by March. “No, we will not reach this situation by March.

But we will not stop studying this area, because this area is very active and Santorini for us - and we tell the students - is a supermarket of natural disasters and unfortunately we saw that not so much happens on land, as much as much happens at sea. The sea hides its own secrets and we must examine and analyze the data in a special way.” At the same time, Ms. Nomikou said that on Wednesday or Thursday, depending on weather conditions, an autonomous submarine equipped with special sensors will dive to a depth of 500 meters in the underwater volcano of Kolumbo.

“It is like circling near the hydrothermal vents. It will collect data from the water column and will rise to the surface again so that we can compare this data, since the crisis began on January 27. We have some data that we will compare, it is data before the seismic activity, and we want to obtain data after the seismic activity as well.”

Now, in his post yesterday, the prime minister, referring to the seismic activity and the residents of the islands affected by the continuous seismic vibrations, appeared reassuring, saying: “I want to ask you to remain calm.

The experts who are constantly monitoring the phenomenon - and I want to emphasize here that we have excellent scientists - give us reasons to be a little more optimistic as the days go by. No one can make predictions with absolute certainty, but there is moderate optimism that we will not be led to the worst-case scenario. The government's responsibility was - and we did - to take all the necessary preventive measures quickly and in a coordinated manner in order to create a safety net for our islanders and to be ready to respond to any eventuality.

This is imposed by the new civil protection culture that we have been trying to build for the last five years, placing the protection of human life and the safety of our fellow citizens as the first priority. We are monitoring the development of the phenomenon and there will be daily updates on new scientific data and on the actions that may need to be taken. For preventive reasons, the MySafetyPlan application is available from Wednesday on the gov.gr platform. It is, in essence, a digital map that shows for all of Greece, obviously also for Santorini and Amorgos, where there are open spaces (e.g. stadiums or squares), to which residents of the areas can take refuge in the event of major earthquakes. A useful service that I hope will not be needed, but it is good to have.”

It is recalled that schools remain closed in Santorini, Ios, Anafi and Amorgos until February 14, while during the last meeting of the two Committees it was reported that “the seismic sequence in the sea area of ​​Anydros between Santorini and Amorgos remains stable, with more than 800 earthquakes since February 1, with a magnitude of over 3 on the Richter scale and a maximum recorded magnitude of 5.2 on the Richter scale. The current seismic activity in the area of ​​the island of Anydros is due to submarine faults with a NE-SW direction and is not related to the volcanic activity of Kammeni and the submarine volcano of Kolumpos. While the seismic activity within the Caldera remains at the same low levels as in previous days. "The Committees will meet again on Tuesday, February 11.