By George Vichas
Cyprus was "woken up" at dawn on Tuesday by the 6,1 Richter and with it the concern among citizens due to the magnitude and duration of the earthquake.
Indicative that the earthquake was also felt in Egypt.
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Speaking to the Cyprus Times, the Senior Geological Officer of the Department of Geological Survey Dr. Sylvana Pilidou stresses that "local earthquakes of this magnitude (M>6.0) we have on average every few decades."
She explained that the specific earthquake had its focus in the western part of the Cyprus Seismic Arc, which extends from the Akamas Peninsula to the Gulf of Antalya, where there is an active lithospheric plate subduction zone. "While most large magnitude earthquakes in this zone have epicentres well north-west of the epicentre of yesterday's earthquake and large focal depths, this earthquake had an epicentre at a relatively short distance (40-50km[/B] from residential areas and a shallower focal depth, resulting in a high intensity [/B](hence sensitivity) throughout the island."
The differences with the 1995
In response to a question about the fact that there was no damage and problems as happened with the 1995 earthquake, Dr. Pilidou said that that earthquake had a similar magnitude and focal depth, but its epicenter was closer to the land. "It also had a different geometry of energy radiation from the earthquake focus," she stressed, explaining that elastic energy is radiated unevenly and asymmetrically from the earthquake focus, depending on the mechanism of earthquake generation. "Both of these factors resulted in the greater destructiveness of the 1995 earthquake," he noted."
"We have so far had small aftershocks"
Finally, on what to expect in the coming days, the Senior Geological Officer of the Department of Geological Survey said that it is still too early to give estimates on the evolution of the phenomenon. "We have small aftershocks so far. It will take the first 24 hours to get a better picture of both the aftershock activity and the overall earthquake excitation area so that we can assess the phenomenon," she concluded.
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