An earthquake is such fun when it is over
George Orwell
Who felt that monstrosity last night?! I sometimes wish that my exes made my bed move that much! I think my spidey senses tingled last night as I woke up just before it happened and then it was like a slow motion rollercoaster. I thought it would be like a vibration and it wasn’t; it was fluid like bobbing on water. I didn’t have any casualties but my jewellery did crash about and I am now blaming the mess in my house on the earthquake obviously!
This earthquake…lets call her Mrs Trunchbull, struck just after 3am Cyprus time in the middle of a big old thunderstorm. Yes it did feel like the apocalypse. According to earthquake.usgs.gov it was a magnitude 6.6 quake (eek), 48km WNW of Polis at a depth of 19.6km. There have also been a couple of aftershocks but they were teeny! Mrs Trunchbull was considered a significant earthquake due to being a 6.6 magnitude, having a plethora of reported feelings and having a higher PAGER alert level. There is then an equation that is calculated and anything over 600 is considered significant (click here for more info)
Cyprus is surrounded by three plates: the Eurasion, the Anatolian and the African. Friction between the Antolian plate and the African plate is actually how Cyprus was pushed out of the sea. There have been a number of large earthquake over the history of Cyprus. This means that Cyprus isn’t actually on a fault line but in a secondary earthquake zone. High magnitude earthquakes are uncommon but do occur every so often. Simply, an earthquake happens when the constantly moving plates underneath us exceed their normal force and push and rub up against each other equalling wobbling around like jelly on a plate!
One of the most destructive earthquakes in recent history was on the 10th September 1953. At a magnitude of 6.1 and an epicentre in the Pafos area, 63 people died and there was a lot of structural damage in the area. 1995 also saw a 5.7 magnitude in the same area which also caused a lot of structural damage. However there are records from the BC years about earthquakes destroying various parts of the island. The Cyprus Geology website provides lots of info about earthquakes in Cyprus and how destructive they were. The most comprehensive list starts from 1896 which is when seismic stations began popping up in neighbouring countries so everything could be measured. Since 1998, there has been the current central seismic station located in Nicosia and upgrades have meant that there are now 7 sub stations over the island feeding data through with one being located in the Akamas region.
You can see that the West and South sides of the Island is the closest to a lot of the epicentres…
If you want more info on earthquakes in Cyprus have a look at Cyprus Geology and look at the list of earthquakes ranked at earthquaketrack
5 Comments
What a well constructed and informative page, well done and thank you
Thanks 🙂
Another great article, very informative indeed. Weirdly wish I was at our apartment in Latchi to experience an earthquake! 😂
Thanks Adriana.
Sorry for the delay in replying! I gave it a 3/10 haha I was not a fan! It was weird xx
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