Powerful 5.8 magnitude earthquake strikes Dodecanese Islands of Greece

June 10, 2012 – GREECE – A powerful earthquake has shaken Greece’s island of Rhodes and southwestern Turkey. No deaths or serious damage have been reported, but officials say six people were hurt in Turkey by jumping out of buildings. The Athens Geodynamic Institute says the quake with a preliminary magnitude of 5.8 struck at a depth of 37 kilometres in the Aegean Sea at 3:44 p.m. (1244 GMT) Sunday. That is between the Greek island of Rhodes and western Turkey. Turkey’s Kandilli Observatory gave a stronger preliminary magnitude of 6.0, with aftershocks of 4.9 and 4.7. Areas of Turkey shaken by the quake included the popular Aegean resort town of Oludeniz, the Aegean port of Izmir, and the Mediterranean city of Antalya. Police in Rhodes said there are no reports of injuries or damage. No serious casualties were reported in Turkey either, but officials said half a dozen people who jumped out of windows in panic over the temblor were injured. These regions of Greece and Turkey are in seismically active areas and suffer frequent earthquakes. More than 30 aftershocks have been registered on the Dodecanese, Greece, after the 6-magnitude earthquake earlier today, the European Mediterranean Seismological Center says on its website. The earthquake was felt on Sunday by even the residents of the capital Beirut and its suburbs, the Lebanon’s Bhanness seismic center said. The quake occurred at a depth of 43 km, 275 km away from the Turkish city of Izmir. Later many aftershocks were felt, with the strongest of them measuring 3.8 on the Richter scale. –NZHerald

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