Quick Search:    advanced search

GSW Home   GeoRef Home   My GSW Alerts   Contact GSW   About GSW   Journals List   Help

This Article Figures Only Full Text Full Text (PDF) Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Konstantinou, K. I. Articles by Stavrakakis, G. N. Search for Related Content GeoRef GeoRef Citation

The 8 January 2006 Earthquake (M_w 6.7) Offshore Kythira Island, Southern Greece: Seismological, Strong-motion, and Macroseismic Observations of an Intermediate-depth Event

The first 20% of the full text of this article appears below.

	INTRODUCTION

 
On 8 January 2006 at 11:34 GMT (13:34 local time), a strong earthquake with a moment magnitude of 6.7 occurred in southern Greece, off the eastern coast of the island of Kythira. The epicentral coordinates as estimated by the European Mediterranean Seismological Centre (EMSC-CSEM, http://emsc-csem.org were 36.31°N, 23.24°E, and the focal depth was 60 km. The shock was felt in a spatially extended area that covered Greece, Italy, Turkey, Egypt, Cyprus, Israel, Syria, Jordan, and Lebanon. Despite the large magnitude of the earthquake, the reported damage was not extensive mainly due to the intermediate focal depth. No casualties were reported and the structural damage to buildings was limited to the islands of Kythira and Antikythira and to the city of Chania, western Crete. Furthermore, landslides and/or rockfalls were reported only at the village of Mitata (Kythira island), where the main square and the road were damaged due to a landslide.

Intermediate-depth earthquakes in this region are related to the southern Aegean subduction zone, which is referred to as the Hellenic arc (figure 1). The deformation that takes place along this arc is caused by the motion and collision of the southern part of the Eurasian plate with the African plate at a rate of 40–60 mm/year. The basic picture of the regional kinematics has not changed much since the early work of McKenzie (1972, 1978) but has been studied in more detail recently using GPS data (LePichon et al. 1995; McClusky et al. 2000; Nyst and Thatcher 2004, among others). The continuation of the Hellenic arc is interrupted by active fault zones with a perpendicular orientation relative to the boundary of the two plates (Lyberis et al. 1982). One of these structures exists in the vicinity of Kythira island . . . [Full Text of this Article]

Institute of Geodynamics
National Observatory of Athens
POB 20048 118 10
Athens, Greece
nmelis@gein.noa.gr
(N.S.M.)

This article has been cited by other articles:

				I. D. Papanikolaou, D. I. Papanikolaou, and E. L. Lekkas Advances and limitations of the Environmental Seismic Intensity scale (ESI 2007) regarding near-field and far-field effects from recent earthquakes in Greece: implications for the seismic hazard assessment Geological Society, London, Special Publications, January 1, 2009; 316(1): 11 - 30. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]