Amidst continuing concern for the restless seismic activity of the last two weeks between Santorini and Amorgos islands on the Aegean, the Greek Ministry of Culture and Sports has put in place precautionary measures to safeguard the area’s invaluable ancient cultural heritage from potential earthquake damage.
At the onset of the phenomenon, the competent cultural authority, which is the Ephorate of Antiquities of the Cyclades, implemented the standard instructions for dealing with seismic activity, and took all the necessary preventive measures to shield archeological sites and exhibits from quake-related risks.
Santorini antiquities adequately protected from continuing earthquakes
Culture Minister Lina Mendoni chaired a meeting on Friday to ensure the respective protocols had been put in place on affected islands.
The previous day, an inspection of the archeological sites and museums of Santorini was carried out by a specialist unit of the Ministry as part of the ongoing checks. It has been assessed that neither the ancient exhibits nor the archeological sites infrastructure on the island had suffered any damage or deterioration thus far.
At the Museum of Prehistoric Thira and the Archaeological Museum, the exhibits have been rearranged to lower shelves, while protective materials have been added to ensure the exhibits’ safety in the event of further escalation of the seismic phenomena.
Extra care was provided for exhibits kept in glass cases, large vases and sculptures, to adequately protect them from potential risks.
At the archeological site of Akrotiri, the laboratories and warehouses are kept tidy and protected in accordance with safety regulations.
Corresponding measures have been taken at all affected nearby islands, while seismic activity lasts.
Cautious optimism for Santorini seismic activity
Following his visit to the island of Santorini on Friday to assess the implementation of measures for the continuous seismic activity, Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said on Sunday that the latest data presented by experts “gave reason to be a bit more optimistic as days progress.”
“Nobody can forecast anything with absolute certainty, but there is cautious optimism that we will not end up with a worst-case scenario,” the Prime Minister pointed out.
A new section named “MySafetyPlan” on the gov.gr online platform, inaugurated on Wednesday, shows all open spaces that residents throughout Greece can resort to in case of strong earthquakes.
An analysis by the Earthquakes Laboratory of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, published on Thursday, February 6, observed that “although a large number of earthquakes with 4.0 magnitude on the Richter scale continue to occur, the seismicity rate shows a relative decrease, in terms of earthquakes detected by both conventional and artificial intelligence methods.”
The Laboratory, which operates under the University’s Geology Department, is experimenting with innovative artificial intelligence and machine learning methods for the automatic analysis of the large volume of available seismic data from the Unified National Seismograph Network (UNES).
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