- A 4.8 magnitude earthquake shook the popular Greek island on Wednesday night
British tourists in Rhodes have described “the whole airport shaking” in the wake of the 4.8 magnitude earthquake that hit the Greek island on Wednesday night.
According to the European-Mediterranean Seismological Center (EMSC), the epicenter was detected in the Aegean Sea, about 67 kilometers (41 miles) southwest of the island, a popular holiday destination for many Britons.
Since the earthquake only registered a magnitude of 4.8, it is understood that the rupture did not cause serious damage to buildings, but would have been felt by people on the island.
However, tourists in various locations on the island took to X, formerly Twitter, to share how they witnessed the tremor.
One user shared how they had felt “the entire airport shaking, causing concern among fellow travelers who had traveled by plane to other parts of the island.”
A location map shows Rhodes, which is the largest of the Greek Dodecanese islands, and nearby Karpathos.
An archive image shows the popular seaside resort of St Paul’s Bay.
They continued: ‘Yeah, like the whole airport shook so fast out of nowhere, the walls and floor were shaking. He felt strange and crazy.’
Another said: “I felt it in Rhodes, in our hotel room.”
A third joked: “Near Faliraki. The table was shaking on the balcony of our hotel. “I thought I had had too many.”
Another comment read: ‘I felt it in Gennadi! ‘just south!!’
Another person who was on vacation said he had felt the earthquake in LIndos.
The EMSC said nearby towns such as Gennadi, Lardos, Archangelos and Rhodes, the capital of the island of the same name, may have felt a weak tremor, while Greek media reported that the tremor was also felt in Turkey.
An EMSC spokesperson said: “Our monitoring service identified a second report from the German Research Center for Geosciences (GFZ) which also listed the earthquake as having a magnitude of 4.9.
“According to preliminary seismic data, the earthquake should not have caused significant damage, but many people probably felt it as a slight vibration in the epicenter area.”
Earthquakes are not uncommon on the Greek island: a powerful 5.9 magnitude earthquake struck Rhodes in January 2023.
Such was the strength of that earthquake that the tremors were felt as far away as Egypt and Lebanon.
Tourists in various locations on the island took to X, formerly Twitter, to share how they witnessed the tremor.
The earthquake, with a depth of 16 miles, occurred in the Aegean Sea about 36 miles southeast of Lindos.
It was also felt in the nearby Turkish provinces of Mugla, Izmir and Antalya, as well as Crete and Cyprus.
The largest earthquake in Greek history hit Amorgos, located in the Cyclades archipelago, back in 1956, which measured 7.7 on the Richter scale and destroyed multiple buildings on the island.
53 people died and 100 more were injured as a result of the disaster, which also caused a tsunami.