‘Everyone is on tenterhooks’: Santorini streets empty after days of tremors Thousands of locals and tourists have fled Greek island amid fears of bigger earthquake or volcanic eruption.
In less than 50 minutes before 8am on Tuesday, when pupils would normally be attending their first class – schools in Santorini and 12 other islands in the Aegean had been shut by the Greek civil protection ministry – seismographs registered six earthquakes, two at magnitudes of 4.8 and 4.9.
“We believe the volcano has small explosions on average every 50 years … so we are within the timeframe [for it to happen],” said Costas Synolakis, an internationally renowned pioneer in the field of natural disasters, ruling out a bigger explosion on the basis that they happen “every 17,000 years”.
For natural disaster experts, the big question now is whether the seismic activity is a precursor of a much more powerful earthquake – one that could, perhaps, trigger a tsumani – or even of a volcanic eruption.
Aegean, the country’s national carrier, announced that in the space of 48 hours it had flown 2,700 passengers from Santorini to the Greek capital after doubling flights to the island from Monday.
