Kostas Papazachos for earthquakes in the Cyclades: “It is a lasting phenomenon – No concern about volcanic activity”

“We cannot rule out the possibility of becoming someone stronger than the order of 6 Richter in, ” made clear on Wednesday morning (05.02.2025) Kostas Papazachos. On the evolution of the “rich” seismic activity that has prevailed in the last 24 hours in the Cyclades, the professor of Geophysics and seismology, spoke on the show “Links”. CORVERSE “At this moment the sequence is clearly directed upon the rift of Andros , that is to say a fault which passes over the island of Anhydros and which has a length of 15 km. It seems that several pieces of this fault have been broken, but there is one area left, which has not yet been broken, so we cannot based on the evidence we have in our hands and uncertainties, rule out the possibility of a stronger earthquake of the order of 6 Richter. So a scenario of a strong earthquake, which is the worst scenario, remains in force for Santorini,” he said initially. For the rareness of the phenomenon, Kostas Papazachos made it clear that he has never seen anything like it in his professional course. “The truth is I’ve never seen anything like this in recent years. It is a very curious, intense sequence from the relatively rare in the Greek space.” CORVERSE Whether a possible earthquake 6 Richter, could trigger the volcano of Santorini, the professor explained that volcanic activity can cause earthquakes but the opposite is not the case. “There is no such element especially for Greek volcanoes. To remind you, there have been huge earthquakes in the area. There has been the Amorgos earthquake in 1956, the largest surface earthquake throughout Europe in the 20th century, which must have lasted according to models around 20 to 30 seconds without any effect, with very large movements, a very large number of underwater landslides and tsunamis without any effect. There is no connection of major earthquakes that have been made and cause volcanic activity. There is a connection that volcanic activity in extreme manifestations has in it earthquakes, but not the reverse.” About when the seismic activity in the Cyclades will fade, Kostas Papazachos said that the phenomenon will last weeks and if a greater vibration occurs, then it can also fade after months. “Extremely unlikely that the situation will change significantly over the next two to three weeks, especially if there is a strong earthquake, we will go in many weeks and months. These sequences unfortunately have their own lives and live a considerable time. It’s a lasting phenomenon. So Santorini will search and find rhythms to live and work alongside this seismic activity.”