An earthquake of magnitude 4.5 on the Richter scale shook Cyprus on August 25th (Tuesday). The epicentre was pretty close to Limassol, occurring near Amathus. But, nothing much happened because of this, just that people were shaken up a bit!
In fact, Cyprus is very close to a highly seismic zone. There is a major fault running through (or very near to) Cyprus. You can actually see the fault. If you go to lady’s mile beach (on the road from My Mall), you turn right at the T-junction to go to Akrotiri lake whereas to the left, the road stops. If you wade into the beach from just to the right of the t-junction, you should see a drop of a feet or so on the sea floor within a few metres from the shore. This is a faultline. This goes in a diagonal direction towards the sea , so goes further in as you go on lady’s mile beach towards Akrotiri. I accidentally noticed this. Once i was snorkelling close to the shore (close – very close as i dont know the ABCs of swimming) and i drifted off a bit. Suddenly, i saw the sea floor much deeper than i would have liked it to be. I panicked and waded towards the shore. Then i noticed the sharp drop on the floor.
Cyprus has had its share of mild earthquakes before. In the late 90s, there was a medium intensity earthquake, the effects of which can be seen on some of the old residential apartments on the beach road. I hope that there are no after-shocks of this earthquake, except the artificial ones to be created by the Israelis!!
The Cyprus Blog recommends:
- Birdwatching in Akrotiri and lady’s mile, Cyprus
- Aphrodite’s Rock – Petra Tou Romiou near Paphos
- Shipwreck near Akrotiri Village
- Beautiful Cyprus – in pictures
- Amdocs fun fair at the maritime center limassol for make a wish foundation
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September 8th, 2009 at 10:44 am
Hi,
.
I found out somewhere that actual magnitude of the earthquake was slightly higher – something 5.8. I don’t really remember where I found it
September 30th, 2009 at 3:21 pm
Hi Rajaram,
nice to see you still follow Cyprus events
.
I wonder if you have a site for India places…
All the best to your family including your lovely daughter,
Diana.
October 19th, 2009 at 6:04 pm
Nice to hear from you guys again!
Sadly have not visited Cyprus this year, normally stay at Latchi in October but my son is learning how to fly (light aircraft p.p.l) and money is a bit tight!
Will visit next year I’m sure.
I know what you mean about the snorkelling, I love it but sometimes it can get scary, saw a t.v. programme recently about a guy who was in the water off the coast of Mexico, got attacked by shoal of huge squid (some a metre long) had over 300 bite marks on him before he was rescued, now that’s scary!
January 27th, 2010 at 9:53 pm
Sounds interesting.. I’d love to see that fault line!
Glad to hear no one was hurt or anything though
Nice Post
Marcus – Cyprus Explore
February 4th, 2010 at 3:36 pm
I loved your photos, especially around the dams of Cyprus.
August 26th, 2010 at 12:32 pm
Thankfully the earthquakes are few and far between – the photos look really good !