Week of tremors exposes dangers of Santorini’s construction boom

[Pelican Press 0]

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Week of tremors exposes dangers of Santorini’s construction *****

STORY: Hundreds of small quakes in Santorini this week have renewed concerns about the safety of decades-long cliffside construction.

Experts have long questioned the sustainability of Santorini’s tourism *****.

And that’s particularly true of the caldera – the rim of an ancient, sunken volcano whose sides plunge into the clear waters of the Aegean.

A 2021 report found that many buildings there had no permits, nearly a quarter of which were tourism businesses.

Efthymios Lekkas is an expert in dynamic, tectonic and applied geology.

“Those that have occupied the caldera and built on morphological discontinuities, those buildings are particularly vulnerable, so we cannot foresee the behavior of those buildings.”

Scientists have warned that the seismic activity could last for weeks and they have not ruled out the possibility of a larger quake to come.

The tremors prompted the government to declare a state of emergency on Thursday.

It shut schools and deployed the army.

Meanwhile, thousands of people left on planes and ferries.

Authorities announced landslide warnings for five areas, including Santorini’s main port.

They also cordoned off areas along the caldera where the environment ministry had halted construction in November.

Greece’s Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis urged calm when he visited the island on Friday, saying that Greece has a very strict building code.

Many residents have become used to earthquakes over the years.

But for hoteliers like Mathaios Kourialis, there are fears for the upcoming holiday season.

“If we continue for another couple of months with this situation, the season will be lost, surely. If there is a decrease in the event, and there is less media attention, and the seismic activity calms down, we are in a timeframe where we will be able to recover.”

Millions visit Santorini’s whitewashed cobbled streets and blue-domed buildings each year.

In recent years, excessive tourism has raised concerns about shortages and overcrowding across Greece.

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