How severe is a magnitude-6 earthquake as Crete given tsunami warning
A tsunami warning has been issued after an earthquake struck off the coast of Crete in Greece in the early hours of Thursday morning, May 22. The shock was felt extensively across islands throughout the Aegean Sea.
The epicentre of the quake was in the sea 58 kilometres north-northeast of Elounda. According to the US Geological Survey, the epicentre was 69 kilometres deep.
It comes after a similar 6.1-magnitude earthquake struck last week near the island of Kasos. This latest tremor struck the north of Crete at 6.19am local time (3.19am GMT) today, and holidaymakers are being warned to stay alert.
The Greek government has urged tourists to 'move away from the coast and reach a higher place' in case a tsunami follows the 6.1-magnitude quake.
The European-Mediterranean Seismological Centre (EMSC) issued an official tsunami warning, telling the people of Greece, Turkey, Italy, France and Portugal to go to their local authorities for updates.
But as the Crete earthquake makes headlines, questions are being raised on just how severe this tremor was.
So, how serious is a 6-magnitude earthquake? Here's everything you need to know.
How are earthquakes measured?
BBC Bitesize explains that until recently, earthquakes were measured via a system called the Richter scale. The Richter scale measures an earthquake's magnitude, in other words, how powerful the tremor is.
Magnitude is measured using a machine called a seismometer which produces a seismograph, and the Richter scale indicates how powerful the quake is on a scale of 1-10.
The scale is logarithmic, meaning that an earthquake measuring magnitude 5 is ten times more powerful than an earthquake measuring 4.
Earthquakes measuring 1-2 on the scale happen regularly, and they are so small that people cannot usually feel them. Earthquakes measuring upwards of 7 are less frequent but very powerful, and can cause serious destruction.
Today, the magnitude of a quake is more commonly measured through the Moment Magnitude Scale - a method that uses the same logarithmic scale as Richter, but which more accurately measures the strength of larger earthquakes.
How serious is a magnitude 6 earthquake and can it cause a tsunami?
According to Michigan Tech, earthquakes with a magnitude of 6.1 to 6.9 "may cause a lot of damage in very populated areas". They also estimate that the planet sees around 100 earthquakes in this category per year.
While a tsunami warning has been issued following the two recent 6.1-magnitute quakes near Crete, USGS explains that tremors with a magnitude less than 6.5 are unlikely to trigger a tsunami.
To put this recent earthquake into context, the largest quake ever recorded was in Chile in 1960, which measured 9.5 on the Richter scale, and killed well over 1,000 people.
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