How long could the ‘seismic crisis’ last?

“We have put all our ranks in the living room,” says Georgia Nomico.

The resident of Santorini fears the effect of the continuous earthquakes on the Greek island, and is popular with tourists for its views that are considered the cards.

But Al -Shaari was broken this week by thousands of earthquakes.

Santorini, and other Greek islands in the region, in the middle of a swarm or “unprecedented” seismic crisis – a sudden increase in earthquakes in a specific area.

About three quarters of the 15,000 population of Al -Jazeera were evacuated, while the authorities declared a state of emergency after an earthquake of 5.2, which is the largest so far, shook the island on Wednesday.

Moreover, despite the smaller earthquakes, I felt again on Thursday.

The “groups” of earthquakes have puzzled scientists who say that such a pattern is unusual because they were not shocked. So what is happening?

Experts agree that Al -Jazeera suffers from what the Prime Minister of Greece called a “very geological phenomenon”.

“It is really unprecedented, we haven’t seen anything like this before [modern times] Dr. Athanasius Ganas, director of the National Observatory Research in Athens, says in Greece.

Santorini is located on the Hellenic volcanic arc – a series of islands created by volcanoes.

But it has not witnessed a major eruption recently, in fact not since the 1950s, and therefore the cause of the current crisis is unclear.

Experts say they see many earthquakes inside a relatively small area, which is not suitable for the Affarshock-Edtershock sequence style, says Dr. Ganas.

He said this began to spit from a volcano in Santorini last summer. Then in January there was a “increase” of seismic activity with the registration of smaller earthquakes.

This activity escalated last week.

Thousands of earthquakes have been registered since Sunday, with the most important Wednesday so far.

““We are in the middle of a seismic crisis.”

Dr. Margareta Sugo described the British geological survey of earthquakes as “in the legumes”.

She says that this “swarm behavior” means that when the most important earthquake strikes, for example, the size of four, “earthquakes are increased for an hour to two hours, then the system relaxes again.”

In short, it is impossible to know that. There are hopes that the earthquake on Wednesday, which was struck at night, is the largest that hit the island.

But earthquake scientists told the BBC that it is difficult to make sure. The authorities have warned that the activity may last for weeks.

Experts also do not know whether this earthquake chain is the front that precedes a large earthquake or their own event.

Professor Joanna Four Walker, a geology expert in an earthquake at the UCL Institute to reduce disaster risk, said that some large earthquakes test the front – high levels of small to medium seismic events – before the main shock.

But what is happening now is not volcanic earthquakes, says Dr. Ganas. Volcanic earthquakes have a distinctive signature of low -frequency wave shapes and have not been shown here.

Dr. Sugo BBC and his colleagues have told the previous earthquakes in the region with machine learning – the method of analyzing data is able to make predictions – to know how to end the earthquakes in the region in 2002 and 2004.

The size of these earthquakes was not intense as I felt now. However, the “signatures” of how to start and end can help build an image of the patterns that must be searched for.

Meanwhile, the additional police units and military forces on the island were deployed to help them deal with any major earthquake.

Santorini, head of the Santorini City Council, said that her family was still in her position, but they were all packed a small bag, “ready to go if anything happened.”

But some island residents say they are not receiving tremors.

“I am absolutely not afraid,” says a Santorini resident, who decided to stay on the volcanic island, although thousands of its neighbors flee in the ongoing earthquake.

Chantal Metakides insists that it will not join its citizens. “For 500 years, this house has lived through earthquakes and volcanic eruptions and is still standing,” she told AFP, adding, “There is no reason for this to change.”