Stay away, ’quake men tell Salonikans

Press, 26 June 1978, Page 9

Stay away, ’quake men tell Salonikans

NZPA Salonika Three earthquake experts have urged the 600,000 residents of Salonika to stay away from their homes for the next 10 days to avoid 1 possible aftershocks of last week's tremor which killed, 40 people. Professors Vit Karnik of the Geophysical Institute of. Prague, and Ota Kulehanek! and Claus Meye of the Up-; sale Seismographic Centre in. Sweden said, “There is a slight possibility of another, strong tremor.” The three experts said! that “for a critical period ranging from five to 10 days Salonika inhabitants should not return to their homes; until the strength of the) buildings has been tested) following the punishment)

they suffered because ot the ’quake and its aftershocks.” The earthquake on Tuesday. measuring 6.5 on the open-ended Richter scale, came after a month 1 less powerful tremors an, dlledi 49 people, 37 of them » the! only apartment buildht, hat! collapsed in Salonika. There have been hundreds ot aftershocks since Tuesday, registering up to 4.6 on the Richter scale. More than 500,000 -resi-, dents have left the city and] the rest are sleeping in) parks and city squares. Professor Jacques Mercier; of rhe University of Paris,: who has studied the seis-i tnography of northern; Greece, said in an interview) with the Athens News Agert-i cy that the earthquake was) —————

caused by geological changes in the subsoil of the area. This was caused, he said, by the movement of Aegean Sea waters through the subterranean chasm of Chalci-i dice, the three-pronged pen-; insula south-east of Salo-i nika.