How long could the ‘seismic crisis’ last?

“We have put all our mattresses in the living room,” says Georgia Nomikou.

The Santorini resident fears the impact of the ongoing earthquakes on the Greek island, popular among tourists for their views to the publication of the image.

But the idyll has been interrupted last week by thousands of earthquakes.

Santorini, and other Greek islands in the region are in the midst of a “unprecedented” swarm or seismic crisis: the name for an abrupt increase in earthquakes in a particular area.

Around three quarters of the population of 15,000 of the island have evacuated, while the authorities declared an emergency state after an earthquake of magnitude of 5.2, the largest so far, shook the island on Wednesday.

In addition, although the smallest earthquakes felt again on Thursday.

The “groups” of the earthquakes have baffled scientists who say that such pattern is unusual because they have not been linked to an important shock. So what is happening?

Experts agree that the island is experiencing what Greece’s prime minister has called an “geological phenomenon extremely and intricate.”

“It is really unprecedented, we have never seen something like this before in (modern times) in Greece,” says Dr. Athanassios Eager, research director of the National Observatory of Athens.

Santorini is located in the Hellenic volcanic arch, a chain of islands created by volcanoes.

But he has not seen an important eruption in recent times, in fact not since the 1950s, so the reason for the current crisis is not clear.

Experts say they are seeing many earthquakes within a relatively small area, which do not conform to the pattern of a mainhock-factorshock sequence, says Dr. earlier.

He said this began with the awakening of a volcano in Santorini last summer. Then, in January, there was a “wave” of seismic activity with smaller earthquakes.

That activity has intensified last week.

Thousands of earthquakes have registered since Sunday, and Wednesday is the most significant until now.

“We are in the midst of a seismic crisis, “said Dr. Gasnas.

Dr. Margarita Segoou of the British Geological Survey described that the earthquakes happened every day “in legumes.”

She says that this “similar behavior” means that when a more significant earthquake hits, for example, a four magnitude, “seismicity increases for one or two hours, and then the system relaxes again.”

In short, it is impossible to know. There is hope that Wednesday’s earthquake, which hit at night, is the greatest to reach the island.

But seismologists have told the BBC that it is difficult to be sure. The authorities have warned that the activity could continue for weeks.

Experts either know if this chain of earthquakes are pre -caudal that lead to a large earthquake or its own event.

Professor Joanna Faure Walker, an earthquake geology expert at the UCL disaster risk reduction Institute, said some large earthquakes experience preshyrocks, high levels of small to moderate seismic events, before the main shock.

But what is happening now are not volcanic earthquakes, let’s say Dr. earning. Volcanic earthquakes have a characteristic firm of low frequency waveforms and these have not been exhibited here.

Dr. Seou told the BBC that she and her colleagues had analyzed previous earthquakes in the region with automatic learning, a data analysis method capable of making predictions, to learn how earthquakes in the region came to an end in the region in 2002 and 2004.

The magnitude of these earthquakes was not as intense as those they felt now said. But the “signatures” of how they began and ended could help build an image of what patterns should take into account.

Meanwhile, additional police units and military forces have been deployed on the island to help you cope with any important earthquake.

Mrs. Nomikou, who is president of the Santorini City Council, said her family stayed, but that each one had packed a small bag, “ready to work if something happens.”

But some islanders say that tremors are not eliminated.

“I am not afraid at all,” says a resident of Santorini, who decided to stay on the volcanic island despite thousands of their neighbors fled in the middle of the ongoing earthquakes.

Chantal Metakides insists that he would not join his compatriots. “For 500 years, this house has lived earthquakes and volcanic eruptions and is still standing,” AFP told the AFP news agency, “there is no reason why this should change.”