The earthquake that occurred this morning off Crete Island has generated an Advisory level tsunami alert. The figure shows the Isocrones (theoretical lines that connect all the points reached by the tsunami wave in a given time interval from the origin and measured on the forecast points represented by the triangles that according to the color evoke the alert level, in this case: yellow in the Crete slope around epicenter and green where no tidal varations are expected) and alert levels for this specific event.
An earthquake of estimated Mwp 6.1 and 6.4 occurred at 11:24 am Italian time today, 12 October 2021, offshore southeast coast of Crete Island, Greece (coordinates: Lat. 34.88, Lon. 26.27) at about 20 km depth.
The tsunami service providers operating in the region KOERI (Turkey), NOA (Greece) and CAT-INGV (Italy), have issued Advisory tsunami alert messages for the Greek islands coasts around the earthquake area. CAT-INGV researchers are currently analyzing real-time data from mareograph located in Ierapetra and other Greek islands to verify the possible occurrence of a tsunami in the area.
The Hellenic arc area is one of the most seismically active regions in the Mediterranean. Just along this arc, in the western sector of the island of Crete, in 365 AD, the earthquake that generated the most significant tsunami in the Mediterranean occurred.
Recently, the same area has been affected by two high intensity events:
- On May 2, 2020 a 6.7 magnitude earthquake, occurring in the south of the island of Crete, had generated a Watch Local level tsunami alert, confirmed by tide gauge data from Ierapetra although with sea level variations contained within +/- 20 cm.
- On September 27, 2021, a 6.1 magnitude earthquake that occurred inland of Crete Island had generated an Advisory level tsunami alert, later revoked.
UPDATE 15:28
At 3:28 p.m. Italian time, due to no observed signs of sea level anomalies recorded by the mareographs present in the area affected by the event, the alert was revoked.
✉️ First Advisory alert message (Inglese).
✉️ Second message; Advisory revocation (Inglese).