Expert: the likelihood of another strong earthquake in Florina

The probability that an earthquake of magnitude 6.0, 6.5 or 6.6 will occur in the Florina area in the next 100 years is 69%, 30% and 25% respectively,” said ΑΠΘ seismology professor Theodoros Tzapanos.

The presentation of the results of the research program “Analysis and registration of local seismic hazard in the area of ​​the municipality” took place in the Municipal Council of Florina.

Immediately after the earthquake on January 9, 2022, with a magnitude of 5.4 Richter, the Florina area came into the focus of scientists from the Faculty of Geophysics and Geology of the Aristotelian University of Thessaloniki.

Under the leadership of Theodore Tzapanos, experts monitored the phenomenon on the order of the municipality of Florina. The earthquake and hundreds of registered micro-earthquakes had a shallow source depth, from 6 km to a maximum of 20 km, and the depth from which the main earthquake occurred was 8 km.

The laboratory’s digital seismograph micronetwork was deployed throughout the city’s geographic range, in public buildings, schools, university halls, in order, as Mr. Tzapanos mentions, “to have a detailed record of microseismic activity. And also to make special measurements over a large area for mapping geological formations and possible active faults.”

According to the study, the earthquake on January 9, 2022 occurred on a fault that was 8.5 kilometers long. It was superficial, like his thrusts. The earthquake occurred in part of a fragment of the tectonic structure, “breaking it”.

When asked why the earthquakes and the hundreds of aftershocks that followed them are so strongly felt by the citizens, Mr. Zapanos explained that this is due to the fact that “the epicenter of all of them was very close to the city, was in a shallow depth of focus and their direction was in side of the city.

The scientists report says that the probability of a magnitude 6.0 earthquake by 2030 is 59.58%, and the probability that the region will produce an earthquake of magnitude 6.0, 6.5 or 6.6 Richter in the next 100 years is 69 %, 30% and 25%, respectively.

The mayor of Florina, Vassilis Giannakis, noted that the data collected through the network of digital seismographs deployed throughout the municipality was very important. Measures are planned to strengthen the city’s infrastructure in order to minimize possible damage from future seismic activity in the region.

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