Early on Tuesday morning, an earthquake with a magnitude of 5.4 shook the area near the Greek island of Evia. The tremor was strong enough to be felt in the capital city, Athens, even though it was some distance away, according to the Greek authorities.
The earthquake happened shortly after midnight local time (around 9:30 p.m. GMT). It struck about 45 kilometers (28 miles) northeast of Athens, the National Observatory of Athens confirmed. The center of the quake was located in the sea, just four kilometers from the coastal resort town of Nea Styra, which lies in the southern part of Evia. This island, also called Euboea, is the second-largest island in Greece after Crete.
Fortunately, officials reported that there were no injuries or damage to buildings. At first, scientists at the observatory thought the quake measured 5.3 in strength, but after further checks, they updated it to 5.4.
The mayor of Marathon, a city not far from the epicenter, described the shaking as “very intense” when speaking to national television (ERT). People in nearby areas were briefly alarmed but no serious problems followed.
This earthquake is only the latest in a series of tremors Greece has faced in recent years. For example, in May, a much stronger earthquake with a magnitude of 6.1 hit off the coast of Crete, Greece’s largest island. That quake was so powerful that it was felt not only in Athens but also as far away as Egypt.
Earlier in the year, in January and February, the famous tourist island of Santorini in the Aegean Sea experienced unusual levels of seismic activity. Thousands of small tremors rattled the island, forcing many residents to temporarily leave their homes. Thankfully, the situation later calmed down, and people were able to return.
Greece is no stranger to earthquakes because it lies on several active fault lines in the southeastern Mediterranean region. These geological faults frequently cause the ground to shake, sometimes lightly, sometimes more severely.
The most tragic recent case happened in October 2020. A very powerful earthquake with a magnitude of 7 struck near the island of Samos in the Aegean Sea. The disaster killed two people on Samos itself and caused even more devastation across the sea in Turkey, where over 100 people died in the port city of Izmir.
