Landslide crashes into the Santorini sea engulfing a village
The country declared a month-long state of emergency as earthquakes struck the volcanic island every ten minutes, causing around 11,000 - more than half Santorini's population - to flee. The combination of seismic activity and overbuilding have been suggested as potential causes for the recent landslide - with over-development transforming fragile soil into hollow ground. The terrifying footage, filmed by Santorini residents, shows a great plume of thick dust engulf the quiet town - known for its whitewashed buildings with blue domes.
'Santorini is an island with vulnerable geomorphology, and when the pressure of overdevelopment is added, the risk of landslides multiplies,' local experts, who rushed to the scene, told Greek outlet Protothema . The stretch of land that collapsed was under particular pressure due to the construction of a new building, the report said. According to Efthymios Lekkas, Professor of Dynamic Tectonics and Geology at the University of Athens, Santorini is prone to landslides because of its steep slopes, high seismicity, and the island's geological morphology - consisting of inter-layered volcanic, lava, and pyroclastic rocks.
Earlier this year, as the island was gripped with earthquakes, Greek prime minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis announced £2.5million funding for an emergency evacuation route from the south of Santorini to be built. Hotel owners were even asked to drain their pools due to concerns that overflowing water could destabilize buildings in a quake. Many who stayed on the island slept on the street with their mattresses, too scared to stay in their homes in case they collapse.
Other residents built makeshift tsunami defenses using sandbags along Monolithos beach, where buildings sit dangerously close to the water. Seismologists said the quakes were the result of tectonic plate movements, not volcanic activity, despite Santorini sitting on the Hellenic Volcanic Arc - a chain of islands formed by ancient eruptions.
The strongest earthquake to shake the island earlier this yea was reported as a 5.3-magnitude on February 10. Greece sits on multiple fault lines and is one of Europe's most earthquake-prone countries, but experts said the level of activity was unprecedented.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Daily Mail
an hour ago
- Daily Mail
Brits are swapping overcrowded Spain and Greece for surprising long-haul destinations
Could Britain's love affair with the Med finally be cooling off? According to new research, a raft of non European destinations have won our affections this summer. Classic sun resorts across Italy, France, Spain and Portugal are becoming less popular, with tourists seeking their holiday kicks further afield, including in Thailand, Canada and the US. Virgin Media 02 data suggests that visitors to Spain have plummeted by around 9% year-on-year - with protests against over-tourism amongst the factors that may be seeing UK holidaymakers jetting off in a different direction. Another enduring favourite, France, has been eclipsed by the US this summer, which has commanded 17% of visitors compared to a hop across the Channel, where only 14% have travelled. Greece and Portugal? They're also down by 7% and 5% respectively, the new data suggests, with many dedicating their summer breaks to more far-flung places. Many are making for Maple Leaf territory, with Canada now accounting for 9% of trips from the UK. Elsewhere, the United Arab Emirates has enjoyed 8% of the British tourist pie, with Thailand and Australia both at 5%. When it comes to last minute getaways though, it seems convenience is everything with resorts that are just a short hop away by plane still seeing the biggest numbers of Brits. Almost 38% of us will take late breaks to Spain while Greece will see 25% and Italy 23%. Christian Hindennach, Chief Commercial Officer at Virgin Media O2 said of the latest research: 'As Brits explore new holiday spots beyond Europe, we're proud to keep them connected wherever they may roam.' After months of over-tourism protests across Spain, there was more bad news for Brits heading to our favourite holiday destination this week - after seven miles of Costa Blanca coastline was closed. Tourists have been banned from going into the water because of rare sea creatures with a potentially-fatal sting. Reg flags went up on beaches in the municipality of Guardamar del Segura just north of Torrevieja following the appearance of so-called blue dragons, which have been branded 'the most beautiful killer in the ocean.' The sea slug, also known as Glaucus atlanticus, feeds on the venomous cells of creatures like the deadly Portuguese man o'war, storing them within its body in concentrated doses. This process concentrates the toxin, making the blue dragon's sting far more potent than that of its prey. Typical symptoms of the blue dragon's sting include nausea, pain, vomiting and, in some cases, severe allergic reactions which can be fatal. Guardamar del Segura's mayor Jose Luis Saez, confirming the sea ban order yesterday which he indicated would remain in place until further notice, said on his official X account: 'Red flag on the beaches of Guardamar. 'Bathing is prohibited following the appearance on Vivers Beach of two specimens of Glaucus atlanticus, known as the Blue Dragon.' He added: 'We remind people that despite its bright and striking colour and it's small 1.5 inch size, they should stay away from this animal because of its sting. 'Guardamar del Segura Town Hall has has launched a preventive operation to detect possible specimens carried by ocean currents. 'Town hall workers are closely following the evolution of the situation and will inform people about the different measures to be taken. 'If you see one of these creatures don't touch it, even with gloves on, alert lifeguards and other authorities. 'If you get stung, wash the area affected with salt water and head to your nearest first aid point or health centre. 'These creatures are poisonous and their stings can cause nausea, pain and vomiting. 'For the time being and until further notice, bathing in the sea is prohibited.' Vivers Beach, a natural stretch of coast south of the Segura River and north of La Babilonia Beach, was said to be full of people yesterday although less people than normal were in the sea defying the bathing ban order and risking heavy fines. Lifeguards with loudhailers were expected to remind tourists and locals today about the prohibition according to local reports, although sunseekers will still be allowed to head to beaches even if they don't take a dip in the sea. Red flags went up at Santa Barbara beach in La Linea de la Concepcion near Gibraltar on Sunday after police received an emergency call about a blue dragon sighting and six were later found on the shoreline. It was reopened to bathers the following day, with a yellow warning flag up instead of the red one.
The Guardian
an hour ago
- The Guardian
Share your stories of holiday disasters
This summer, social media exploded with tales of holiday disaster – from bricked up balconies, to overbooked resorts that were still under construction. Now we want to hear about your holiday from hell. Perhaps you paid for a hotel that wasn't quite as picturesque as promised? Accidentally flew to the wrong destination? Or maybe the problem was all in the family? Tell us all about it below. You can tell us about your holiday disaster below. Please include as much detail as possible. Please note, the maximum file size is 5.7 MB. Your contact details are helpful so we can contact you for more information. They will only be seen by the Guardian. Your contact details are helpful so we can contact you for more information. They will only be seen by the Guardian. If you include other people's names please ask them first. If you're having trouble using the form click here. Read terms of service here and privacy policy here.
Telegraph
2 hours ago
- Telegraph
I went to the male-only Greek mountain where sex is prohibited – and punished by God
Father Cassianos fixed me with an impish stare as he gave me his answer. 'It has been so many years that I cannot remember.' The corners of his mouth turned upwards in the most subtle of smiles. I had asked him how long he had lived on Mount Athos, the semi-autonomous Greek peninsula home to approximately 2,000 Orthodox monks. I suspected that his plea of forgetfulness masked an interesting past. One thing was certainly true: Cassianos could not have been born here, for on Mount Athos, there are no women. Chastity is one of the key vows that monks take across Eastern and Western Christian churches. It is what ties monks of every denomination and order together, though Mount Athos is one of the most extreme attempts to ensure the enforcement of this particular vow. The remote peninsula was once considered sacred to Zeus but now it is dedicated to Mary, the mother of Christ, owing to a legend that she was shipwrecked there on her way to go and live with St John on the island of Patmos. At the little port of Ouranoupoli at the edge of the peninsula, the women stay on the quayside whilst the ferry – the steep and forested terrain makes overland access impossible – is boarded by men only. The ban on women, however, has made Athos a tempting place for female politicians, adventurers and sex symbols to try to visit. The Empress of Serbia, Helena, managed to land upon the mountain in 1346 but was refused entrance even to the great Serbian national monastery of Hilandar. Of those women who braved the trip solo, Aliki Diplarakou stands out. Reports vary quite how the 1930's 'Miss Greece' got from a party yacht off the Greek coast to the holy mountain in 1932. Some say it was an impromptu, cocktail-fuelled expedition courtesy of an enamoured sailor with whom she swapped clothes. Others suggest that a monk, struck by her beauty, aided and abetted her transgression. Either way, future beauty contests in Greece were banned after outrage by the Church. Those who breached Athos's rules were declared as 'anathema' – cursed – by the Patriarch of Constantinople, Photius II. The anathema is still in place. I went to Athos to research my book, Twelve Churches, which charts how Christianity developed through the stories of some of its most curious enclaves. The book covers issues from power to profit to beauty, but sex was the hardest to address. As a clergyman in the Church of England, I'm all too aware of the Church's propensity to get knickers in twists over this specific issue. That's in part because Scripture seems to provide evidence for radically opposing views to develop because of ambiguity in the text. To try to understand all this contradiction, I thought I would go to Athos – perhaps the one place in Christendom where there is no ambiguity at all. In the Gospels, Jesus Christ says very little directly about the subject. Later Christian writers, however, came to view it as particularly important, as the most obvious manifestation of the life of 'the flesh', which stood in direct competition with the life of 'the spirit' to which people of faith were called. St Paul, in the first letter he wrote to Christians in Corinth, addressed this conflict directly. Corinth had a community of new believers, some of whom were Jews and some who had once worshipped the pagan gods. This brought problems. Whilst Judaism had a relatively constricted attitude to sex, ancient Paganism was less picky. Paul in his letter sets out the idea that our bodies are 'temples of the Holy Spirit'. And such a state of the body is threatened by wrong types of sex. So to avoid distractions from a holy life, he advises celibacy is best. But, if you couldn't manage that, then a single marriage to someone of the opposite sex would do. There are lots of odd things about life on Athos, as I found during my stay at the Pantokrator Monastery. To even set foot on it you need a special Church document. Generally non-Orthodox visitors are treated with suspicion, although they have a soft spot for the Church of England as, in the words of one monk, 'your king is half Greek'. Once there you are woken up by a monk banging a wooden board outside your window at 4 am. The heat in the summer when I went was intense, meaning that all we pilgrims had to sleep in the nude. Sex, paradoxically, is never far away on the Holy Mountain. It was St John Cassian – the namesake of the monk I met on Athos – who set out the most extreme version of celibacy for communities of monks and nuns. A Greek monk who lived at the end of the fourth century AD, he argued 'spiritual knowledge cannot be had without integral chastity' – people cannot be fully spiritually enlightened without being totally free from sexual desire. As a young man he travelled to the imperial capital of Constantinople, where he found a city teeming not just with sexual acts of every kind but with the consequences of sex too. Cassian didn't see people healthily acting on their natural desires, he saw abandoned babies, murdered prostitutes, men forcibly made eunuchs against their will and children of both sexes forced into sexual relationships by the powerful. One Byzantine writer observed the regularity of accidental incest in the city, due to fathers 'unknowingly having intercourse with a son or daughter who has become a prostitute'. This led Cassian to advocate abstinence from sex; not as 'virtuous in itself' but because of its positive effects on the soul. One of the reasons why he thought sex was such a particular problem was that he felt the lure of it all too well. In particular, multiple chapters of his writings deal with the feelings of guilt after a 'nocturnal emission' or 'wet dream'. He says such an incident is 'a manifestation of a hidden interior fault'. Sexual doings of the body were utterly related to the state of the soul. Eventually, Cassian's statutes became the central pillars for communities seeking to set rules for monastic life. Athos taught me a lot about sex. Strangely, it was that elderly monk, and the writings of a long-dead Greek saint, who helped me understand the newly puritanical attitudes which, we are told, are becoming more widespread in younger generations. A tightening of sexual mores in reaction to the excesses of previous generations is nothing new – nor is it always, or automatically, a bad thing. I think it is probably true that sex has become so central to Western identity that we've lost some sense of its value. Athos was a corrective to that. Some secular Western societies like to think that their particular attitudes about sex and the individual sprung fully formed in the late 20th century. This is not the case. Paul's teaching that the body was a temple and worthy of consideration over what was done with – or, to – it informs even the most secular person's concept of sexual propriety in the West. The fact that we still view many of the sexual practices that shocked Cassian but did not shock the Pagan world – incest, child prostitution, rape – as taboo is testament to the convincing nature of the arguments he made, even if we now have a slightly tamer attitude to wet dreams. Early Christian attitudes to sex were undoubtedly distant from those of the 21st century – though not perhaps as distant as we think. Yet, as I returned from Athos and was able to talk to women again, to call my wife and to, frankly, think about sex a bit more normally, I was grateful that a middle ground between the extremes of hyper-sexualisation and the world of Athos was available to me. Twelve Churches: An Unlikely History of the Buildings that Made Christianity will be published by Hodder & Stoughton on August 28
