NO DAMAGE or injuries were been reported following Tuesday night’s earth tremor.
Measuring 4.6 on the Richter scale, the tremor was recorded at 10.55pm.
According to the Geological Survey Department of the Ministry of Agriculture, Natural Resources and Environment, chances of aftershocks are remote.
A Department press release says the epicentre of the quake was in the Aradhippou area, in the Larnaca district, at a depth of 10 kilometres. The tremor was felt in the Larnaca villages of Aradhippou, Athienou, Dhali, Stavrovouni and Lythrodontas and in Yeri, Latsia and Aglandjia in Nicosia.
Agriculture Minister Fotis Fotiou has said there is no cause for concern, adding that it had only been a moderate tremor.
Seismologist Kyriacos Solomi of the Geological Survey Department said although nothing can be ruled out, it is not likely that there will be aftershocks, since no seismic activity was reported after the initial earthquake.
The Department is continuously monitoring the situation, he added.
Solomi noted that the epicentre of the quake was on land and that is why it shook the capital, adding that it is considered to be a surface tremor, since the depth was only 10 km.
He furthermore pointed out that only a small number of quakes that shake Cyprus are on land.
“The epicentre of most quakes is usually in the sea area, mainly to the south and west of Cyprus,” where the African and Asian tectonic plates meet on the Cypriot arc, he said.
According to Solomi, Tuesday’s tremor was on the threshold of high intensity quakes, since low intensity ones reach 4.5 degrees on the Richter scale and anything above that is considered to be high intensity.
Asked if any damage had been reported, Solomi said that so far there had been none. “The quake has caused some alarm but no damage has been reported,” he pointed out.
He added that a very powerful quake in the same area of Aradhippou in 1961 damaged homes but did not cause any injuries.
The last earthquake to be recorded by the seismographs at the Geological Survey Department was on July 26, 2007. It measured 4.4 degrees on the Richter scale and its epicentre was in Klirou, in central Cyprus.
Solomi stated that the biggest quake in the island’s recent history occurred on October 9, 1996, when a 6.5 magnitude quake was recorded.
The most destructive quake last century happened in September 1953, which left 63 dead and over 200 injured. One-hundred-and-fifty-eight villages in the Paphos district were affected.
The Eastern Mediterranean is an area of complex tectonic processes and the Cyprean Arc is one of the lesser-understood parts of the Alpine-Himalayan tectonic belt. While the level of seismic activity near Cyprus is low compared with the seismicity of the nearby Hellenic Arc, at least 16 destructive earthquakes have occurred in the immediate vicinity in the past 2,000 years.
Last June, a six-day Civil Defence exercise gauging the island’s preparedness for a major earthquake and its after effects took place
Organised in co-operation with Civil Defence Germany, the exercise involved teams of 15 people from Civil Defence organisations in 25 EU Member States assessing what needs to be done in case an earthquake measuring 7.2 on the Richter scale hits Cyprus in the future.
Civil Defence Commissioner Christos Kyriakides at the time told the Cyprus Mail that, “such an earthquake could cause massive damage and could even trigger a tsunami. Infrastructure would be affected and toxic material could leak out from damaged factories. We need to know how Cyprus would be affected so that we can ask the EU for the correct assistance”.
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