1999 Athens earthquake

<h2 id="tectonic-setting">Tectonic setting</h2>
<p>Greece is a seismically active country, located in a complex zone of interaction of the <a href="/facts/African_plate/U4akPN82">African</a>, <a href="/facts/Eurasian_plate/WztRQ8pA">Eurasian</a>, <a href="/facts/Aegean_Sea_plate/gqp6W8hL">Aegean Sea</a>, and Anatolian plates. <a href="/facts/Southern_Greece/888UJwGu">Southern Greece</a> itself is located on the Aegean Sea plate. The Anatolian Plate is moving southwest into the Aegean Sea plate at a rate of 3 cm per year relative to the Eurasian plate. Meanwhile, the African plate subduction beneath the Aegean Sea plate at a rate of 4 cm per year along the <a href="/facts/Hellenic_subduction_zone/gfskFkEx">Hellenic Subduction Zone</a>.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:1" href="#fn:1"><sup>1</sup></a>
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<h2 id="damage">Damage</h2>
<p>The 1999 quake was the most devastating and costly <a href="/facts/Natural_disaster/cCSK2uH0">natural disaster</a> to hit the country in nearly 20 years. The <a href="/facts/1981_Gulf_of_Corinth_earthquakes/z3fDLrEo">last major earthquake</a> to hit Athens took place on February 24, 1981, near the Alkyonides Islands of the <a href="/facts/Corinthian_Gulf/gK9xzYmc">Corinthian Gulf</a>, some 87 km to the west of the Greek capital. Registering a moment magnitude of 6.7, the 1981 earthquake had resulted in the deaths of 20 people and considerable and widespread <a href="/facts/Earthquake_engineering/rF0Yv7co">structural damage</a> in the city of <a href="/facts/Corinth/GtvbldxS">Corinth</a>, nearby towns and sections of Athens' western suburbs.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:2" href="#fn:2"><sup>2</sup></a>
</p><p>Apart from the proximity of the epicenter to the Athens Metropolitan Area, this quake also featured a very shallow <a href="/facts/Hypocenter/uly7q7E0">hypocenter</a> combined with unusually high <a href="/facts/Peak_ground_acceleration/SjVGYxrF">ground accelerations</a>. Unexpectedly heavy damage also affected the town of Adames. The <a href="/facts/Acropolis_of_Athens/lqIuuC2F">Acropolis of Athens</a> and the rest of the city's famous ancient monuments escaped the disaster either totally unharmed or suffering only minor damage. A landslide as well as several fissures were reported along the road leading to the peak of <a href="/facts/Mount_Parnitha/JgnPJjH8">Mount Parnitha</a>. <a href="/facts/Regency_Casino_Mont_Parnes/oSv7kJKk">Regency Casino Mont Parnes</a> was damaged by the earthquake, causing numerous rooms to collapse and the building's northeastern wing to detach from rest of the building.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:3" href="#fn:3"><sup>3</sup></a><a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:4" href="#fn:4"><sup>4</sup></a> Minor damage was also reported to water and waste networks close to the epicenter.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:5" href="#fn:5"><sup>5</sup></a>
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<h2 id="strong-motion">Strong motion</h2>
<p class="note">See also: <a href="/facts/Seismic_gap/z569DJJf">Seismic gap</a></p>

<p>This event took Greek seismologists by surprise as it came from a previously unknown fault, originating in an area that was for a long time considered of a particularly low seismicity.  The highest recorded <a href="/facts/Peak_ground_acceleration/SjVGYxrF">peak ground acceleration</a> was 0.3g, at 15 km from the epicentre, with attenuation predicting 0.6g acceleration at the centre.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:6" href="#fn:6"><sup>6</sup></a> 
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<h2 id="response">Response</h2>
<p>The tremor took place less than a month after a <a href="/facts/1999_%C4%B0zmit_earthquake/9FzLnmjl">Turkish disaster which was much larger in scale</a>. This succession of earthquakes and mutual help of both countries gave rise to talks about what became known as the "<a href="/facts/Greek-Turkish_earthquake_diplomacy/nmM6oVMf">Greek-Turkish earthquake diplomacy</a>", in hopes for a breakthrough in bilateral relations, which had been marred by decades of hostility. Turkey reciprocated the aid rendered by Greece immediately following the August 17, 1999 Turkish earthquake. A special taskforce was formed, consisting of the Undersecretariat of the Prime Ministry, the Turkish Armed Forces, the Ministries of Foreign Affairs and of Internal Affairs and the Greek Embassy in <a href="/facts/Ankara/llGIJ0vj">Ankara</a> was contacted. The Turkish aid was the first to arrive in the affected areas, with the first 20-person rescue team arriving in Athens within 13 hours after the earthquake struck. The Greek consulates and the embassy in Turkey had their phone lines jammed with Turkish citizens offering <a href="/facts/Blood_donation/PIvGgUSW">blood donations</a>.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:7" href="#fn:7"><sup>7</sup></a>
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<h2 id="see-also">See also</h2>
<ul><li><a href="/facts/List_of_earthquakes_in_1999/jkmJQmmI">List of earthquakes in 1999</a></li>
<li><a href="/facts/List_of_earthquakes_in_Greece/yPVMJV7n">List of earthquakes in Greece</a></li>
<li><a href="/facts/2019_Athens_earthquake/aTYLyJnD">2019 Athens earthquake</a></li></ul>

<p>Sources
</p>
<ul><li>Br J Surg. 2004 Dec;91(12):1633–40. Autopsy findings from 111 deaths in the 1999 Athens earthquake as a basis for auditing the emergency response. Papadopoulos IN1, Kanakaris N, Triantafillidis A, Stefanakos J, Kainourgios A, Leukidis C.</li></ul>
<h2 id="further-reading">Further reading</h2>
<ul><li><a href="http://mceer.buffalo.edu/research/Reconnaissance/greece9-7-99/">The Athens (Greece) Earthquake of September 7, 1999: Preliminary Report on Strong Motion Data and Structural Response.</a> <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20160303203639/http://mceer.buffalo.edu/research/Reconnaissance/greece9-7-99/">Archived</a> March 3, 2016, at the <a href="/facts/Wayback_Machine/nmQ3a6JC">Wayback Machine</a> – MCEER</li>
<li><a href="https://www.eeri.org/lfe/pdf/greece_athens_eeri_preliminary_report.pdf">The Athens, Greece Earthquake of September 7, 1999</a> – <a href="/facts/Earthquake_Engineering_Research_Institute/4QWyUB3u">Earthquake Engineering Research Institute</a></li>
<li><a href="https://doi.org/10.1023%2FA%3A1019924508035">The Source Mechanism of the Athens Earthquake, September 7, 1999, Estimated from P Seismograms Recorded at Long Range</a> – <a href="/facts/Springer_Science%2BBusiness_Media/nAesf6nT">Springer Science+Business Media</a></li>
<li><a href="/facts/Spyros_B._Pavlides/rhwWp505">Pavlides, S.</a>, Papadopoulos, G. A., and Ganas, A., 1999. The 7th September 1999 unexpected earthquake of Athens: Preliminary results on the seismotectonic environment, 1st Conf. Advances in Natural Hazards Mitigation: Experiences from Europe and Japan, Programme-Abstracts-Reports, Athens, 3–4 November 1999, 80–85.</li>
<li>Ganas, A.; Papadopoulos, G.; Pavlides, S. B. (2001). "The 7th September 1999 Athens 5.9 Ms earthquake: remote sensing and digital elevation model inputs towards identifying the seismic fault". <i>International Journal of Remote Sensing</i>. 22 (1): 191–196. <a href="/facts/Bibcode_(identifier)/9HtdQSGB">Bibcode</a>:<a href="https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2001IJRS...22..191G">2001IJRS...22..191G</a>. <a href="/facts/Doi_(identifier)/muM9Etpq">doi</a>:<a href="https://doi.org/10.1080%2F014311601750038938">10.1080/014311601750038938</a>. <a href="/facts/S2CID_(identifier)/ldJsHa2Y">S2CID</a> <a href="https://api.semanticscholar.org/CorpusID:130681996">130681996</a>.</li>
<li>Ganas, A., Stavrakakis, G., Lagios, E., Papadopoulos, G., & Pavlides, S., <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20071128054507/http://www.pcigeomatics.com/services/support_center/tech_papers/aganas1.pdf">Investigation of the seismic fault that ruptured during the 7/9/99 Athens earthquake using space techniques, RSPS 2001 Proceedings, Natural Hazards</a></li>
<li>Lekkas, E. (2001). "The Athens earthquake (7 September 1999): intensity distribution and controlling factors". <i>Engineering Geology</i>. 59 (3–4): 297–311. <a href="/facts/Bibcode_(identifier)/9HtdQSGB">Bibcode</a>:<a href="https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2001EngGe..59..297L">2001EngGe..59..297L</a>. <a href="/facts/Doi_(identifier)/muM9Etpq">doi</a>:<a href="https://doi.org/10.1016%2Fs0013-7952%2800%2900119-8">10.1016/s0013-7952(00)00119-8</a>. <a href="/facts/ISSN_(identifier)/DPAflDvU">ISSN</a> <a href="https://search.worldcat.org/issn/0013-7952">0013-7952</a>.</li></ul>
<h2 id="external-links">External links</h2>

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Earthquakes of Athens 1999.

<ul><li>The <a href="http://www.isc.ac.uk/">International Seismological Centre</a> has a <a href="http://www.isc.ac.uk/cgi-bin/FormatBibprint.pl?evid=1655758">bibliography</a> and/or <a href="http://www.isc.ac.uk/cgi-bin/web-db-v4?event_id=1655758&out_format=IMS1.0&request=COMPREHENSIVE">authoritative data</a> for this event.</li></ul>

<h2 id="references">References</h2>

<ol>
<li id="fn:1"><p>Matthew W. Herman; Gavin P. Hayes; Gregory M. Smoczyk; Rebecca Turner; Bethan Turner; Jennifer Jenkins; Sian Davies; Amy Parker; Allison Sinclair; Harley M. Benz; Kevin P. Furlong; Antonio Villaseñor (2015). "Seismicity of the Earth 1900‒2013 Mediterranean Sea and vicinity" (Open-File Report 2010-1083-Q). Open-File Report. United States Geological Survey. doi:10.3133/ofr20101083Q. Retrieved 11 August 2021. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help) <a href="https://pubs.er.usgs.gov/publication/ofr20101083Q" target="_blank">https://pubs.er.usgs.gov/publication/ofr20101083Q</a> <a href="#fnref:1" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li>
<li id="fn:2"><p>Papanikolaou, I.D.; Papanikolaou, D.I.; Lekkas, E.L. (2009). "Advances and limitations of the Environmental Seismic Intensity scale (ESI 2007) regarding near-field and far-field effects from recent earthquakes in Greece: implications for the seismic hazard assessment". In Reicherter, K.; Michetti, A.M.; Silva, P.G. (eds.). Palaeoseismology: Historical and Prehistorical Records of Earthquake Ground Effects for Seismic Hazard Assessment. Geological Society, Special Publications. Vol. 316. pp. 11–30. doi:10.1144/SP316.2. ISBN 9781862392762. S2CID 130603646. <a href="9781862392762" target="_blank">9781862392762</a> <a href="#fnref:2" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li>
<li id="fn:3"><p>Jarvis, Ruth, ed. (2004). Time Out Athens. Penguin Books. p. 236. ISBN 9780141010557. <a href="9780141010557" target="_blank">9780141010557</a> <a href="#fnref:3" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li>
<li id="fn:4"><p>Maria Thermou (November 25, 2008). "Η ανάσταση του Μον Παρνές" [The Resurrection of Mont Parnes]. To Vima (in Greek). Retrieved December 22, 2024. <a href="https://www.tovima.gr/2008/11/25/archive/i-anastasi-toy-mon-parnes/" target="_blank">https://www.tovima.gr/2008/11/25/archive/i-anastasi-toy-mon-parnes/</a> <a href="#fnref:4" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li>
<li id="fn:5"><p>Elenas, A. (2003), "Athens earthquake of 7 September 1999: Intensity measures and observed damages" (PDF), ISET Journal of Earthquake Technology, Technical Note, 49 (1), Indian Society of Earthquake Technology: 77–97 <a href="http://home.iitk.ac.in/~vinaykg/Iset_40_tn.pdf" target="_blank">http://home.iitk.ac.in/~vinaykg/Iset_40_tn.pdf</a> <a href="#fnref:5" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li>
<li id="fn:6"><p>Anastasiadis A. N.; et al. "The Athens (Greece) Earthquake of September 7, 1999: Preliminary Report on Strong Motion Data and Structural Response". Institute of Engineering Seismology and Earthquake Engineering. MCEER. Archived from the original on 3 March 2016. Retrieved 22 March 2011. <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20160303203639/http://mceer.buffalo.edu/research/Reconnaissance/greece9-7-99/" target="_blank">https://web.archive.org/web/20160303203639/http://mceer.buffalo.edu/research/Reconnaissance/greece9-7-99/</a> <a href="#fnref:6" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li>
<li id="fn:7"><p>"Bu dostluk bitmez" (in Turkish) <a href="http://www.milliyet.com.tr/1999/09/10/haber/hab00.html" target="_blank">http://www.milliyet.com.tr/1999/09/10/haber/hab00.html</a> <a href="#fnref:7" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li>
</ol>

1999 Athens earthquake open-in-new

1999 Athens earthquake