A magnitude 4.8 earthquake rattled the island of Lesvos on Tuesday morning. There have been no reports of injuries.
The earthquake hit five kilometers east southeast of the town of Mithymna and had a focal depth of 12.4 kilometers, according to the first report by the Athens Geodynamic Institute.
Local media report that the tremor was felt throughout the Greek island.
Was the earthquake in Lesvos an aftershock?
Seismologists say that the earthquake was perhaps an aftershock following the earthquakes on Saturday, when two earthquakes with magnitudes 4.9 and 4.7 on the Richter scale and some fifteen aftershocks rattled the island of Lesvos.
The seismic activity has caused minor damage in at least five houses, and rocks have fallen on the roads in the western part of the island.
Seismologists warned that the 4.9-magnitude earthquake may not be the main event.
“We need to be a little bit careful because the fault that caused today’s earthquakes is close to the larger fault of Agia Paraskevi that runs through the island from one end to the other,” seismology professor and director of the Athens Geodynamic Institute, Akis Tselentis, told state-run news agency AMNA.
“We are not 100 [percent] sure that this is the main earthquake and for the moment it is difficult to claim such a thing,” he said.
The view was shared by seismologist Gerasimos Papadopoulos, who told ANT1 channel “it is too early to assess whether this 4.9-Richter earthquake was the main one.”
“An earthquake is a dynamic phenomenon, every smaller vibration that is added helps us assess the situation,” he added.
In 2017, a magnitude of 6.3 earthquake caused extensive damage on southern Lesvos, where there was one fatality and ten people who were injured. The earthquake was also felt in Turkey but no significant damage or injuries were reported.
In December, over seventy aftershocks rattled Evia, Greece in the twenty-four hours following the 4.9 earthquake on Wednesday near the town of Psachna.
The tremor was also felt in Athens around 65 kilometers (40 miles) to the south of the island.
The epicenter of the earthquake was five kilometers south of Psachna. It occurred at a shallow depth of ten kilometers beneath the epicenter.
Related: Earthquakes in Greece: The Areas of High Risk
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