6.6-Richter quake hits southeastern Greece
A powerful earthquake measuring 6.6 on the Richter scale was reported at 6:54 yesterday morning, deep under the seabed west of Karpathos, 380 kilometers southeast of Athens, the Athens Geodynamic Institute reported. It caused alarm in many parts of Greece and the eastern Mediterranean but there were no reports of injuries or significant damage, thanks to the great depth of the epicenter. The quake was felt as far away as Corfu off northwestern Greece, Patras in the Peloponnese, as far east as Israel and in Egypt in the south. The residents of the Dodecanese, Crete and southwestern Turkey were jolted the most. A man in Turkey died of a heart attack. The epicenter was 104 kilometers below the surface. «If it had been a little further south and closer to the surface, it would have caused serious damage to the cities of northern Crete,» said Akis Tselentis, professor of seismology at Patras University. The secretary of the Geotechnical Chamber of Greece, Haralambos Fasoulas, said, «Crete and the region of Iraklion must be studied further, because of the nature of the sub-surface.»
