Yet again, earthquakes!

Here are two maps of the Southern Peloponnese, one showing a rectangle defining the area where most of the “local” earthquakes have occurred , and the other, with the help of the web site www.emsc-csem.org, you can see some of the activity in the last 7 days.

Since 14^th February the number of seismic events is now 266 !! Almost every day we still have something recorded for the area, but thankfully as they are mostly under magnitude 4, we don't feel anything.

On the map showing activity you can see the mass of events in the Northern Peloponnese, between Patras and Pylos that have occurred in the last couple of weeks. These started with a couple of quite serious quakes measuring over 6, and these caused considerable damage and the deaths of at least 2 people.

Also on that map you will see a large orange circle to the east of the Peloponnese, between Nafplio and Nemea. This occurred a couple of mornings ago, about 5am our time. I happened to have just been woken by our cat, Tara, who wanted to go out. After letting her out I had just laid down in bed when I heard the wood in our roof making popping and cracking noises and could feel a very gentle movement of the bed. No, no jokes please!!! So, 100km away, a magnitude 5 quake could just be felt.

I hope this is the last entry about earthquakes for some time!!

Earthquakes, a daily event

Since the first earthquakes we felt on February 14th, there have been at least two or three every day. The total events in the area to the south west of us in the sea is now 125.

Fortunately, there have been only three quakes of magnitude greater than 6; ones that we could feel. The remainder have all been less than 5, mostly in the range 3-4.

A few days ago I thought they were dying out, but still they continue. How many more can there be?

Shake, rattle and roll

It's now a week since the first earthquake that we felt here. That one occurred on the 14th February just after midday at 12:09. Later the same afternoon we felt another, the feeling being very similar, the ground seeming to move from side to side, very little vertical movement, similar to being on a boat in harbour when another passes by. Yesterday we felt yet another, this time it lasted a little longer that the previous two, maybe around 40-45 seconds.

Checking on the activity in the area I discovered that there have now been 52 "incidents" since the 14th. These include 3 earthquakes over 6 on the Richter scale, the rest being mostly in the range 3-4. They are in an area directly out to sea from us, about 30-35 miles away. You can have look at these using the "European-Mediterranean Seismological Centre" web site at http://www.emsc-csem.org.

What is happening in this area? Are we about to see a volcano or new island rise up out of the sea as Surtsey did back in 1963? I very much doubt that, hopefully the activity will just die down in the next few days.