Santorini Quake Update 26.2.25 – Activity Up
Earthquake frequency is slightly up since the 24th of Feb but average intensity of quakes is down. In this Santorini earthquake we’ll look at seismographs from Anydros island, the epicentre locations and island movement and see if anything is changing.
Links to live earthquake data, statistics and YouTuber commentary here
Seismographs – Anydros Island
Anydros has been at the centre of the earthquake swarm since it started and for this reason it’s probably the most active seismograph in the area.
Comparing the 23rd with today, lines look smoother and spikes also seem less frequent. The frequency trend we see here goes against some of the data we’ll see below.
Looking at the seismographs only, I’d say activity is down.
Epicentre Locations
The trend that we started seeing from around the 23rd is still with us. Namely the epicentres of the quakes been spread out over the line between Amorgos and Santorini, rather than focussed in tight areas.
This same website also shows we are still seeing a lot of earthquakes at a very shallow depth of 2km.
Island Movement
Generally movement for Ios, Amorgos and Santorini is the same as the last update.
One notable aspect is Ios‘s movement to the west looks like it’s going to stop. This suggest the constructive plate margins we see between Santorini and Amorgos are less active and the force pushing them apart has died down. This is consistent with the reduced intensity of earthquakes we are seeing. The slight increase in smaller quakes doesn’t have the energy to keep Ios moving west.
Is it possible we are seeing under-water lava emissions and this is what is potentially relieving pressure in the fault and this is why the earthquakes have dropped in intensity?
I guess it’s possible but I would like to think that if this was the case it would have been reported in the media.
Cumulative Earthquake Data
And finally the cumulative earthquake data. Although the frequency of quakes has increased since the start of the increasing tides on the 24th, the average magnitude of the quakes is dropping, green is taking up a much bigger proportion of the bars.
Santorini Earthquake Update 26.2.25 – Summary
Activity has increased slightly with the new tides but the average intensity of each quake is less.
Many earthquakes are shallow, 2km deep of less, and this may be a reason for dropping magnitude of the average quake. Quakes can read less intense the closer they are to the surface.
Ios’s slowing movement west I think says less force in the crust pushing westwards, is this because was are seeing underlying conditions settling or are we seeing magma release under water relieving pressure. I think calmer underlying conditions is more likely but it is still concerning to be seeing so many earthquakes being recorded.
Having said that the seismograph on Anydros is not reflecting the increase in earthquake frequency and nor apparent the dropping in average intensity. I would say intensity of quakes today about the same as the 23rd according to Anydros. So a bit of conflict in the data for Anydros, nevertheless, the potential drop in activity in Anydros is another pointer saying general underlying stress in reducing. Perhaps there would be more activity in Anydros if there were magma being released underwater.
Next Few Days
As expected, there was some uptick in activity when the tides started to build and this could continue. However I think the trend we have seen so far is for activity to peak as the tides start to get bigger and then for the frequency to gradually decline until the tides reach their smallest. If this holds for this period, we may have already seen peak activity and events could continue to drop until the 10th or 11th of March when the tides start to build again.
