The 1904 Samos earthquake struck

Greece Greece, officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. Located on the southern tip of the Balkan peninsula, it shares land borders with Albania to the northwest, North Macedonia and Bulgaria to the north, and Turkey to th ...

on August 11 with moment magnitude of 6.1−6.8 and a maximum Mercalli intensity of X (''Extreme''). Four people were killed.

Damage and casualties

The earthquake registered a magnitude of 6.1–6.8 on the

moment magnitude scale The moment magnitude scale (MMS; denoted explicitly with or Mwg, and generally implied with use of a single M for magnitude) is a measure of an earthquake's magnitude ("size" or strength) based on its seismic moment. was defined in a 1979 paper ...

. Between the main shock and an

aftershock In seismology, an aftershock is a smaller earthquake that follows a larger earthquake, in Epicenter, the same area of the Mainshock, main shock, caused as the displaced Crust (geology), crust adjusts to the effects of the main shock. Large earthq ...

that followed three days later, 540 houses were destroyed on

Samos Samos (, also ; , ) is a Greek island in the eastern Aegean Sea, south of Chios, north of Patmos and the Dodecanese archipelago, and off the coast of western Turkey, from which it is separated by the Mycale Strait. It is also a separate reg ...

, then an autonomous part of the

Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire (), also called the Turkish Empire, was an empire, imperial realm that controlled much of Southeast Europe, West Asia, and North Africa from the 14th to early 20th centuries; it also controlled parts of southeastern Centr ...

. Four people were killed. Damage extended to

Patmos Patmos (, ) is a Greece, Greek island in the Aegean Sea. It is famous as the location where, according to Christian belief, John of Patmos received the vision found in the Book of Revelation of the New Testament, and where the book was written. ...

and

Anatolia Anatolia (), also known as Asia Minor, is a peninsula in West Asia that makes up the majority of the land area of Turkey. It is the westernmost protrusion of Asia and is geographically bounded by the Mediterranean Sea to the south, the Aegean ...

, while shaking from the earthquake reached from offshore

Chios Chios (; , traditionally known as Scio in English) is the fifth largest Greece, Greek list of islands of Greece, island, situated in the northern Aegean Sea, and the List of islands in the Mediterranean#By area, tenth largest island in the Medi ...

and

Santorini Santorini (, ), officially Thira (, ) or Thera, is a Greek island in the southern Aegean Sea, about southeast from the mainland. It is the largest island of a small, circular archipelago formed by the Santorini caldera. It is the southern ...

Ödemiş Ödemiş () is a municipality and district of İzmir Province, Turkey. Its area is 1,019 km2, and its population is 132,740 (2022). It is located 113 km southeast of the city of İzmir. About 4 km north of Ödemiş town are the ru ...

and

Aydın Aydın ( ''EYE-din''; ; formerly named ''Güzelhisar; Greek: Τράλλεις)'' is a city in and the seat of Aydın Province in Turkey's Aegean Region. The city is located at the heart of the lower valley of Büyük Menderes River (ancient ...

in Turkey.

Geology

Along its source fault, the earthquake created of ruptured rock and had an average displacement of . It originated from oblique-slip faulting. The island of Samos disconnected from Anatolia, and the

strait A strait is a water body connecting two seas or water basins. The surface water is, for the most part, at the same elevation on both sides and flows through the strait in both directions, even though the topography generally constricts the ...

between them is less than in width. The island itself is a horst, and a large fault runs along the island's NW-W coast.

Tectonic uplift Tectonic uplift is the orogeny, geologic uplift of Earth#Surface, Earth's surface that is attributed to plate tectonics. While Isostasy, isostatic response is important, an increase in the mean elevation of a region can only occur in response to ...

is noticeable at the shores of Samos, likely linked to historic earthquakes.

Seismic history

Within the last two centuries, Samos has experienced multiple powerful earthquakes registering above magnitude 6.0. Six such earthquakes were recorded during the 19th century and two more in the 20th. Analysis indicates three earthquakes before the 19th century in circa 200 BC, 47, and 1761. An earthquake in 1476 may have devastated the island to the extent that its occupants, the Genovese, evacuated. Uplift from the 6th century implies another earthquake circa 500.

References

{{Earthquakes in Greece

Samos earthquake Earthquakes in Greece History of Samos August 1904 in Europe 1904 disasters in Greece

Damage and casualties

Geology

Seismic history

See also

References