ATHENS – It scared the bejesus out of everyone who felt it but a 5.1-Richter scale earthquake that shook Greece’s capital on July 19 released pressure on a fault and likely won’t happen again, a seismologist-geologist at the Geodynamic Institute said.
The post-earthquake activity has been “smooth,” Thanasis Ganas told Kathimerini, adding, however, that it is still too early to draw any “safe conclusions,” showing the difficulty of predicting seismic activity even with today’s technology and monitoring devices.
“We are monitoring the phenomenon and I believe that we will be able to come to safe conclusions within the next few days,” Ganas said on July 22.
He added that three new seismographs have been installed at the monitoring station of Athens University’s Department of Geophysics near the quake’s epicenter in Thriasio, northwest of the capital, to keep a close record of activity in the area.
No serious injuries were reported as the quake, which lasted only seconds, rumbled through Athens, putting a near-panic into residents and tourists during the height of the summer season.
In central Athens, the municipal authority ordered the demolition of 13 buildings that were damaged, the paper said, while also shutting down three day-care centers until they can be more thoroughly checked for structural damage.
Two buildings collapsed in Drapetsona in Piraeus and in Athens’ Petralona district during the quake while technical crews have since recorded limited damage to buildings in Athens’ downtown Monastiraki district, in the western suburb of Egaleo and the port of Piraeus.
Read more at thenationalherald.com
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