{"id":26957,"date":"2025-02-11T05:36:59","date_gmt":"2025-02-11T10:36:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/?p=26957"},"modified":"2025-02-11T17:42:52","modified_gmt":"2025-02-11T22:42:52","slug":"santorini-shaking-state-of-emergency-in-effect","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/santorini-shaking-state-of-emergency-in-effect\/","title":{"rendered":"Santorini Shaking: State of Emergency In Effect"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Key Points<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Santorini and neighboring islands are currently experiencing what is described as a \u2018seismic swarm\u2019 of earthquakes.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Nearly thirteen thousand have been recorded in the past twelve days.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>A <a href=\"https:\/\/civilprotection.gov.gr\/en\/deltia-tupou\/anakoinosi-ypoyrgeioy-klimatikis-krisis-kai-politikis-prostasias-3\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">state of emergency<\/a> has been in effect since the largest tremor of 5.1 struck the island on Feb 6. Large numbers of people have evacuated.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Experts suggest this may be a precursor a larger event, including a possible volcanic eruption.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>The US Embassy has issued a <a href=\"https:\/\/gr.usembassy.gov\/natural-disaster-alert-u-s-mission-greece-february-7-2025\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">new warning<\/a> advising extreme caution before travelling there.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>At time of writing, local agents report no damage to the airport.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h4>An Active Earthquake Zone<\/h4>\n<p>Greece is one of the most <strong>seismically active<\/strong> regions of Europe.<\/p>\n<p>It occupies part of something known as the \u2018Hellenic Subduction Zone.\u2019 Not dissimilar to the Pacific\u2019s notorious \u2018Ring of Fire,\u2019 here shifting tectonic plates create numerous weaknesses in the earth\u2019s crust.<\/p>\n<p>The source of the current trouble is found near Anydros \u2013 just 16nm northeast of <strong>Santorini<\/strong>. The earthquakes began on Jan 31 and have progressively worsened which may be cause for concern.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_26969\" style=\"width: 793px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-26969\" class=\"wp-image-26969 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/Santorini-Map.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"783\" height=\"552\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/Santorini-Map.png 783w, https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/Santorini-Map-300x211.png 300w, https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/Santorini-Map-768x541.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 783px) 100vw, 783px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-26969\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The largest yet occurred on Feb 6 and was felt as far away as Athens, Crete and T\u00fcrkiye.<\/p><\/div>\n<h4>State of Emergency<\/h4>\n<p>Following the events of Feb 6, a <a href=\"https:\/\/civilprotection.gov.gr\/en\/deltia-tupou\/anakoinosi-ypoyrgeioy-klimatikis-krisis-kai-politikis-prostasias-3\">state of emergency<\/a> was declared and will remain in effect until at least March 3. This includes an instruction to<strong> immediately evacuate coastal areas<\/strong> in the event of stronger earthquakes due to a tsunami risk.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_26959\" style=\"width: 1034px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-26959\" class=\"size-large wp-image-26959\" src=\"https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/police-1024x576.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1024\" height=\"576\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/police-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/police-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/police-768x432.jpg 768w, https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/police.jpg 1480w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-26959\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">A state of emergency is in effect until at least March 3.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>On Feb 7 the US Embassy issued a <a href=\"https:\/\/gr.usembassy.gov\/natural-disaster-alert-u-s-mission-greece-february-7-2025\/\">new warning<\/a> for Santorini and the surrounding islands. They advise <strong>extreme caution<\/strong> if travelling there.<\/p>\n<h4>Airports<\/h4>\n<p>The seismic events are occurring in a relatively constrained area of the Aegean Sea between Santorini itself, and the island of Amorgos.<\/p>\n<p>As such, <strong>LGSR\/Santorin<\/strong>i is the primary airport to be impacted. At time of writing, several local agents have advised the airport is open and operating normally.<\/p>\n<p>However, the situation is inherently unpredictable. If a larger quake occurs, a <strong>sudden closure of the airport is possible.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>This may be preventative due to the evacuation of staff (including ATC), or more severe in the case of damaged infrastructure including instrument approach equipment, movement areas and the runway itself.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_26961\" style=\"width: 1034px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-26961\" class=\"size-large wp-image-26961\" src=\"https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/LGSR-1024x683.webp\" alt=\"\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/LGSR-1024x683.webp 1024w, https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/LGSR-300x200.webp 300w, https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/LGSR-768x512.webp 768w, https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/LGSR-1536x1024.webp 1536w, https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/LGSR-900x600.webp 900w, https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/LGSR.webp 1950w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-26961\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">At time of writing, LGSR\/Santorini is open and not reporting damage.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>For inbound aircraft a solid contingency plan right now would be to carry <strong>healthy alternates<\/strong> such as LGMK\/Mykonos, LGIR\/Heraklion, LGSA\/Chania or even LGAV\/Athens.<\/p>\n<p>If you must go to Santorini, we recommend stop and goes only to <strong>minimize time on the ground.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Should the airport close, damage assessments can take hours or days to complete. Any aircraft on the ground may be stuck there for an extended period of time. Crew recovery options may also be limited during rescue efforts.<\/p>\n<h4>What will happen next?<\/h4>\n<p>Experts are undecided. A typical seismic pattern usually consists of larger earthquakes (mainshocks) followed by smaller ones (aftershocks).<\/p>\n<p>The pattern in Santorini is different. Some seismic events don\u2019t consist of one single major event. Instead, a region can experience a wave of smaller quakes over a period of weeks or months. This is phenomenon is known as \u2018swarms.\u2019<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_26964\" style=\"width: 702px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-26964\" class=\"size-full wp-image-26964\" src=\"https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/Swarm.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"692\" height=\"714\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/Swarm.png 692w, https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/Swarm-291x300.png 291w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 692px) 100vw, 692px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-26964\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Santorini may be experiencing a different kind of sesimic event called a &#8216;swarm.&#8217;<\/p><\/div>\n<p>On the other hand, other scientists believe recent events may be a precursor to something larger \u2013 the figure being widely thrown around is a \u2018six\u2019, defined on the Richter Scale as a strong quake with potential to damage well-built structures with strong to violent shaking near the epicenter.<\/p>\n<p>We will continue to monitor the situation in Santorini and report any changes to aircraft operations as they become apparent.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Key Points Santorini and neighboring islands are currently experiencing what is described as a \u2018seismic&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":49,"featured_media":26962,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[2162,323,2283],"class_list":{"0":"post-26957","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-briefings","8":"tag-earthquake","9":"tag-greece","10":"tag-santorini"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26957","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/49"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26957"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26957\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26978,"href":"https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26957\/revisions\/26978"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26962"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26957"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26957"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26957"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}