Santorini facing crucial 24 hours to find out if it will be hit by ‘the big one’
Source: World – Metro
Santorini faces a countdown to finding out whether the next earthquake will be ‘the big one’.
The next 12 to 24 hours are expected to determine whether the Greek island’s relentless earthquakes will fade – or build toward something far more dangerous.
Overnight, earthquakes with magnitudes of 5.2 and 4.6 rattled the region, part of what is known as the Hellenic Volcanic Arc, raising fears of a tsunami or even a volcanic eruption.
The quake swarms have seen thousands evacuated and a state of emergency declared.
Security and health risk services company, International SOS, has been monitoring the seismic activity, preparing for whatever could come next.
Adam Lakhani, security director, told Metro that Santorini has been shaking under the force of more than individual 200 tremors in the few days.
‘Earthquakes are incredibly difficult to predict,’ he said. ‘All the information that we are seeing at the minute – whether we are at the start of seismic activity or end – indicates that we are very much in the middle.
‘In the next 12 to 24 hours, we should see an indication as to whether the numbers are rising or declining.’
Meanwhile, ferries and commercial airlines have added flights and ships to their schedules to accommodate the increased demand.
Mr Lakhani said International SOS clients was alerted on Tuesday after a rise in tremors.
So far no requests for evacuations have been made to the company, which can coordinate such operations.
He added: ‘We have been following the situation very closely and pulling data from the Institute of Geodynamics in Athens and the US Geological Survey.
‘So far there have been no casualties or damage. The evacuations we have seen in the news have bee very precautionary.
‘Thankfully, it is low season, so we do not have a large number of tourists on the island.
‘A number of emergency services have also been redeployed to the island again as preparation in case of a larger quake.’
International SOS has been relaying information from the Greek disaster warning system to its clients and sharing the locations of the nearest shelters.
Greece lies in a highly seismically active area and low-level earthquakes are frequent.
But it is extremely rare for any part of the country to experience such an intense barrage of shakes.
Predicting them is not scientifically possible, and experts cannot actually determine whether the seismic activity between the islands of Santorini and Amorgos is a precursor to a significantly larger earthquake, or is part of weeks or months of small or moderate intensity ones.
Mr Lakhani said: ‘These earthquakes are not unprecedented. It is a seismic area. But the infrastructure is built with that in mind.
‘Buildings have been built with the knowledge. The destruction from an earthquake will not be similar to what we say in Turkey and Syria two years ago.’
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