"Prediction by K. Sinolakis: "An earthquake measuring 8.5 on the Richter scale is coming to Greece"

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The famous Greek seismologist Kostas Sinolakis gave a television interview and said that it is very likely that an earthquake measuring 8.5 on the Richter scale will “hit” Greece.

It is characteristic that the academician cited the example of the great earthquake in western Crete: “If you go to the Archaeological Museum of Chania, you will see that there is an exhibition there that tells about a very strong earthquake that occurred in the west of Crete in 365 AD. e. And how do we know about this earthquake? From the descriptions… At this time, Alexandria disappeared as a world city. Alexandria by that time was the center of at least Greek civilization. It disappeared because it was completely destroyed by the huge tsunami associated with this earthquake. And we can tell how strong this earthquake was by the tectonic rupture.

So, in the west of Crete, in Falassarna, where there is an amazing beach, there is an old harbor that has risen and is located at an altitude of 8 meters above the sea. How did she get up? In Sfakia you can see the old coastline, which is two meters high, so that it has risen two meters above the surface. You can see it for yourself, you don’t need to be a geologist.”

Thanasis Anagnostopoulos I wanted to ask again about the possibility of such a strong earthquake: “Of course… How is the magnitude of an earthquake calculated: geologists say that in order to make these observations, while the island in Chania rose to about 1.80… Here you ask: “What kind of earthquake is this that can produce such displacements as we see even now, and what size was it?” The answer is about 8.5 points. This is a statistical scenario because it has happened before. This is an indication, not a prediction. The fact that this has happened before suggests that it could happen again.

One of the reasons why we have very beautiful landscapes, seas, plains, very beautiful mountains is that we are located right on the border of two tectonic plates, on the border of the European plate. The one south of Crete and towards the Ionian Sea, west of the Peloponnese and towards western Greece, passes over the African Plate. What does it mean?

That's why Crete has such high mountains… Western Crete is slowly rising. We have all the signs. Somewhere in the Greek Arc region, such earthquakes occur every 600-800 years. The last known earthquake occurred in 1303 AD. It appears that at some point such an earthquake will happen here too. The question is how prepared we are… If you count the frequency of earthquakes in the long term, the number will increase,” – said Kostas Synolakis in an interview with Studio 4.

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