The tremors were felt in Athens on Monday evening and measured a focal depth of 17km (10.6 miles).

Residents of the neighbouring island Amorgos remain on high alert after the latest tremor, which followed a moderate 5.0 magnitude earthquake between the islands on Sunday evening.

The tourist hotspot has been rocked by seismic activity since January and more than 12,800 quakes have been detected by the University of Athens’ Seismological Laboratory.

Some residents have been seen patrolling dangerous areas to deter tourists from taking photos on cliffs.

Landslides have occurred in many parts of Santorini due to the frequency and intensity of the tremors and experts have not ruled out a major earthquake.

Seismologists were optimistic about the intensity of the quakes starting to subside, but are now concerned they are worsening.

A state of emergency will remain in place on Santorini until at least 3 March.

Sunday’s quake was preceded by three smaller ones of more than 4.0 magnitude, while the three on Monday morning were also more than 4.0.

Inspections found no damage to buildings in Santorini or Amorgos.

No injuries have been reported as a result of the earthquakes, which have numbered in the thousands since 26 January, but more than 11,000 people have left the islands.

Schools will remain closed on Santorini, Amorgos and several other islands on Monday and Tuesday.

A team of the Special Disaster Response Unit has set off for Amorgos from Patras with a special earthquake rescue vehicle, and technical teams are expected to inspect the electricity network on the island.

Kostas Papazachos, a professor of seismology at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, told Greek broadcaster ERT that the authorities had to allow for the situation to continue for most or all of February.

“Let’s hope that we will slowly move towards a gradual de-escalation,” he said.

“We will have to be a little patient and see. Let’s hope that after a couple of weeks the phenomenon will start to subside.”

He said the possibility of a major earthquake had not been completely ruled out.

Meanwhile the cruise ship Viking Star, with 893 passengers and 470 crew, docked at the port of Souda in Crete early on Monday morning.

It was due to be the first cruise ship of the season in Santorini. The ship changed its route mainly to avoid cable car overcrowding in Santorini during the seismic activity.

The previous strongest quake since the activity started was a 5.2 magnitude on Thursday. Six and above is considered severe.

Greece is one of Europe’s most earthquake-prone countries, but scientists are puzzled by the current “clusters” of quakes which have not been linked to a major shock.

Santorini is on what is known as the Hellenic Volcanic Arc, which is a chain of islands created by volcanoes, but the last major eruption was in the 1950s.

Greek authorities have said the recent tremors were related to tectonic plate movements, not volcanic activity.

Scientists cannot predict the exact timing, size or location of earthquakes.

From 26 January to 8 February 2025, the Seismology Laboratory (SL) of the University of Athens registered more than 12,800 earthquakes in the Santorini-Amorgos zone.

“I remember our dog and bird acting strangely. Then, the earthquake struck,” 83-year-old Eirini Mindrinou recalls, her voice steady but distant, as if trying to grasp a memory that never truly faded. “The house split open before closing again. Through the crack in the roof, I could see the sky.”

The 7.8-magnitude earthquake, which struck between Santorini and the nearby island of Amorgos, destroyed much of the island, and a powerful aftershock 12 minutes later finished what little remained. Fifty-three people died. The island, then just a quiet fishing village, was scarred and its people fled.

It is much different today, rebuilt into one of Greece’s most coveted tourists destinations – but this week, another mass exodus unfolded. Subtle tremors that had begun in June 2024 turned into full-fledged earthquakes, some exceeding 4.0 on the Richter scale, shaking homes and unsettling the island’s residents. Families rushing to leave by air and sea, desperately seeking respite as the ground shook once again.

But not everyone is fleeing. Those that remain display the mix of courage, necessity, and a deep connection to the land that has come to define the locals of this island. They endure sleepless nights, haunted by memories of the past and the terrifying unknown of what’s yet to come.

“The noise from the earthquake, the sounds of [other people’s] homes breaking apart – it’s unbearable. Even in my house, it’s become overwhelming,” says Margarita Karamolegkou, a local businesswoman. “I’ve felt tired, day after day, with no end in sight… But I haven’t felt fear. I can’t leave my home, and I can’t leave the people who’ve stayed behind.”

This resilience is nothing new. People have have withstood both social change -about 3.4 million visited the island last year, according to Mayor Nikos Zorzos – and seismic shifts. Now, as always, they have come together in solidarity.

“We’re doing our best to support the vulnerable,” says Matthaios Fytros, a local volunteer and merchant. “People with disabilities, the elderly – many struggle to get around, and their homes are hard to reach. If a major earthquake hits, I know exactly where they live, and I’ll get to them as fast as I can, alongside the firefighters.”

Matthaios and others patrol the island, ensuring abandoned properties aren’t looted and helping anyone in need. “I’m not afraid,” he says with quiet conviction. “We’re proud of our island. I just hope everything works out and that this ordeal ends soon. We’ll be happy to have our visitors back with us.”

The response of the state has been swift, with measures taken to address the crisis. Beneath the gratitude for the government’s intervention, however, lingers a quiet bitterness. Many islanders recall the years when their cries for better infrastructure and support went unheard.

“For years, we’ve been asking for a better port, something to help us manage the growing number of tourists,” Margarita says, her voice tinged with frustration. “We need help preserving the island’s identity – its unique environment, the seismic and volcanic forces that shape it. We’re grateful for the tourists, but we also need to protect what makes Santorini special.”

Tourism has become the lifeblood of Santorini’s economy. The island contributes around 2.5% to Greece’s GDP, approximately 5.9 billion euros (£4.9 billion) each year.

As the tremors continue, the future of Santorini’s economy remains uncertain. Will its prosperity withstand the shaking ground? The people of Santorini worry that the island’s fragility may soon extend beyond the land itself.

“I regret how haphazard the island’s development has been with the rise in tourism,” says Eirini, who is temporarily in Athens, not out of fear, but for routine medical tests. “We’ve damaged the natural environment here. Now, with the earthquakes continuing, there’s a real risk we could lose the entire tourist season.”

Scientists may not know when the shaking will stop, but instead of succumbing to fear, some residents have chosen to understand the phenomenon, hoping that will bring them reassurance in the face of the unknown.

“I try to think of what’s happening with kindness,” Margarita says thoughtfully. “It feels like something is settling down there. Everything we admire about Santorini today – the beauty, the character – has been shaped by the volcano and its seismic forces.”

“We are the most beloved island,” says Matthaios, his voice full of pride. “And I believe we’re the most beautiful of all the islands in Greece. We will get out of this stronger.”

It comes after amagnitude 5.2 tremor was recorded at 21:09 local time (19:09 GMT) on Wednesday between the Greek islands of Amorgos and Santorini,making it the strongest in recent days. It is estimated to have occurred at a depth of 5km (3.1 miles).

The decree will be in effect until 3 March to “address the emergency needs and manage the consequences”, officials said.

More than 11,000 people have already left Santorini, with around 7,000 departing by ferry and 4,000 by air.

A 4.7 magnitude quake was also recorded south-west of Amorgos at 07:50 local time on Thursday, following 57 tremors between midnight and 06:30.

Magnitude refers to the size of an earthquake, with increases marked as decimal points. A magnitude 6.0 and above is considered severe, where as a magnitude 5.2, the strongest experienced so far in the region, is considered moderate.

So far no major damage has been reported on the island, butauthorities are preparing in case a larger quake hits.

Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis is expected to visit Santorini on Friday.

Vasilis Karastathis, director of the Geodynamic Institute, told Greek state-owned broadcaster ERT News that “seismicity continues at the same pace as in previous days, intense”.

“We have a fairly high number of earthquakes with magnitudes above 4,” he said.

“We are still in the middle of the road. We have not seen any thinning, any sign that it is heading towards retreat.”

Santorini welcomes millions of tourists annually, but it is currently low season, meaning local residents and workers make up the majority of evacuees.

Due to the state of emergency, repairs to things like public roads and ports can skip usual bureaucratic requirements and begin immediately.

“We are in a particularly uncertain stage, where we cannot accurately determine the duration of the seismic swarm nor its exact origin,” Costas Synolakis, a professor of natural disasters, told ERTNews.

He said it is necessary to remain prepared for the possibility of a larger earthquake and a “volcanic crisis” like the one in Santorini.

To cope with this, extra generators have arrived and a backup telecommunications station is being set up at Santorini City Hall.

Islanders also fear of a tsunami, with makeshift defences built from sacks along Monolithos beach in Santorini, where the buildings are very close to the sea.

All hospital employees are on standby to help those who have remained on the island with all leave and days off cancelled.

Additional ambulance crews, police officers, soldiers and military vehicles have also arrived in Santorini, with medical personnel sent from Naxos, another island.

Vassilis Kikilias, the climate and civil protection minister, said units of firefighters trained in natural disasters were being despatched to Santorini.

Teams with special dogs and a mobile operations centre have also been sent to the island, while helicopters are on standby.

Kikilias also said the coast guard and armed forces would be available to assist vulnerable people who wish to evacuate.

Poor weather means the ferry from Santorini to Piraeus port near Athens is not operating. The adverse conditions are expected to continue over the coming days.

Many travellers remain at Santorini’s port to board emergency ferry routes that have been set up.

Schools on Santorini – and other neighbouring islands including Anafi, Paros, Naxos and Mykonos – will remain closed until Friday, when authorities will make a decision about when they can re-open.

Earlier on Wednesday, Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis had struck an optimistic tone at a meeting of civil protection experts.

“All plans have been implemented. Forces have been moved to Santorini and the other islands, so that we are ready for any eventuality,” he said.

He asked the islanders to “stay calm and cooperate with the authorities”.

The Thira Chamber of Commerce earlier called for business on the island to be suspended and emergency support measures be taken in line with those during Covid-19.

Santorini is on what is known as the Hellenic Volcanic Arc – a chain of islands created by volcanoes – but the last major eruption was in the 1950s.

Greek authorities have said the recent tremors were related to tectonic plate movements, not volcanic activity.

Scientists cannot predict the exact timing, size or location of earthquakes.

But there are areas of the world where they are more likely to occur, which helps governments prepare.

Earthquakes are the result of movement of tectonic plates in the earth’s crust. Sometimes these plates lock together when they meet, which is called a plate boundary or a fault line.

Santorini and the other Greek Islands are near such a line.

The earthquake that hit Tibet’s holy Shigatse city around 09:00 local time (01:00 GMT) had a magnitude of 7.1 and a depth of 10 kilometres (six miles), according to data from the US Geological Survey, which also showed a series of aftershocks in the area.

Tremors were also felt in neighbouring Nepal and parts of India.Earthquakes are common in the region, which lies on a major geological fault line.

Shigatse is considered one of the holiest cities of Tibet. It is the traditional seat of the Panchen Lama, a key figure of Tibetan Buddhism whose spiritual authority is second only to the Dalai Lama.

Tingri county, near the earthquake’s epicentre, is a popular base for climbers preparing to ascend Mount Everest.

Mount Everest sightseeing tours in Tingri, originally scheduled for Tuesday morning, have been cancelled, a tourism staff told local media, adding that the sightseeing area has been fully closed.

There were three visitors in the sightseeing area who have all been moved to an outdoor area for safety, they said.

Chinese state media reported the earthquake as having a slightly lesser magnitude of 6.8, causing “obvious” tremors and leading to the damage of over 1,000 houses. There have been several strong aftershocks.

Jiang Haikun, a researcher at the China Earthquake Networks Center, told CCTV, China’s national television broadcaster, that while another earthquake of around magnitude 5 may still occur, “the likelihood of a larger earthquake is low”.

Since China annexed Tibet in the 1950s, it has kept a tight control over the autonomous region, including its media and internet access.

Social media posts from the earthquake-affected area on Tuesday showed collapsed buildings.

A hotel resident in Shigatse told Chinese media outlet Fengmian News that he was jolted awake by a wave of shaking. He said he grabbed his socks and rushed out onto the street, where he saw helicopters circling above.

“It felt like even the bed was being lifted,” he said, adding that he immediately knew it was an earthquake because Tibet recently experienced multiple smaller quakes.

The Chinese air force has launched rescue efforts and drones to the affected area, which sits at the foot of Mount Everest and where temperatures are well below freezing.

Both power and water in the region have been cut off.

Chinese president Xi Jinping has also called for all-out search and rescue efforts to minimise casualties and resettle affected residents.

While tremors were felt in Nepal, no damage or casualties were reported, a local official in Nepal’s Namche region, near Everest, told AFP.

The region, which lies near a major fault line of the Indian and Eurasian tectonic plates, is home to frequent seismic activity. In 2015, a 7.8 magnitude earthquake near Kathmandu, the capital of Nepal, killed nearly 9,000 people and injured over 20,000.

Two hundred others are being treated for injuries, with powerful aftershocks from the 7.3-magnitude tremor reported overnight.

The earthquake damaged buildings, including the embassies of the US, France, the UK and New Zealand. It also cut power and mobile services.

Vanuatu police say a seven-day state of emergency has been declared to limit the movement of the public while search and relief operations are underway.

Four of the fatalities died at hospital in the capital city of Port Vila, the government said. Six were from a landslide, while four were from a collapsed building, where the toll was expected to rise further.

Two of the fatalities were Chinese nationals, Chinese Ambassador to Vanuatu Li Minggang told state media.

An estimated 116,000 people could be affected by the worst impacts of the quake, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said.

Neighbouring Australia will send teams to assist in the search and rescue effort, Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles told ABC News on Wednesday. The US and France have also pledged aid.

Photos shared by Vanuatu Police on Facebook showed rescuers sifting through rubble by hand and crawling under the floors of collapsed buildings.

At least 10 buildings in Port Vila sustained “major structural damage”, the government’s disaster management office said.

From the rubble of one three-storey building, rescuers heard the voices of at least three people, Vanuatu resident Michael Thompson told AFP news agency.

Thompson said rescuers used “everything we can get our hands on”, including jack hammers, grinders and concrete saws, to rescue people.

Images from state broadcaster VBTC showed many businesses in Port Vila closed on Wednesday, with debris scattered on the sidewalk and some roads cracked.

Some people could be seen looking for essential supplies.

The earthquake struck at 12:47 local time (01:47 GMT) on Tuesday and triggered a brief tsunami warning.

Vanuatu, a low-lying archipelago of some 80 islands in the South Pacific, is located west of Fiji and thousands of kilometres east of northern Australia.

The nation sits in a seismically active area, and is susceptible to frequent large earthquakes and other natural disasters.

Power and mobile networks across the country have been cut off and the full extent of the damage still remains unclear, but there are unconfirmed reports of at least one death.

Dan McGarry, a journalist living in Port Vila, said he saw “several people who were visibly, seriously injured” outside the hospital’s emergency department.Vanuatu is prone to earthquakes, but Mr McGarry said that the earthquake, which struck at 12:47 local time (01:47 GMT), felt like “the biggest one… in more than 20 years”.

“Emergency services are going to be busy for a while. We have limited equipment and capabilities here [in Vanuatu]”, said Mr McGarry, adding that police at the Vila Central Hospital told him that one person has died, and that he expects the death toll to rise.

One of the clips from state broadcaster VBTC’s Facebook page showed dozens of people outside the Vila Central Hospital, many lying on hospital gurneys awaiting treatment.

Michael Thompson, director of the Vanuatu Jungle Zipline adventure company, told AFP news agency that he had seen bodies lying in the streets.

“There’s multiple buildings that have come down around town. There’s a big rescue operation on the way to clear out people who are possibly alive in the building,” Mr Thompson said, in a separate video posted to Facebook.

“I thought the ceiling [of our house] was going to come right down, Mr Thompson’s wife Amanda told the BBC.

“We often have earthquakes here but not like this.. The house has giant cracks all through it, sliding glass doors are smashed.

“We are feeling a lot of after shakes now, each one nervously makes us as we run out the door to open air,” she said.

However Mr McGarry added that the latest disaster was something the people of Vanuatu would “get through”.

“People in Vanuatu deal with natural disasters on a yearly basis. It’s in our blood. We’ll get through this as well, although not without some suffering,” he said.

Vanuatu, a low-lying archipelago of some 80 islands in the South Pacific, is located west of Fiji and thousands of kilometres east of northern Australia.

The nation sits in a seismically active area, and is susceptible to frequent large earthquakes and other natural disasters.

The United States Embassy, the British High Commission, the French Embassy and the New Zealand High Commission were among the damaged buildings, with all of them being housed in the same complex.

US officials said the building sustained “considerable damage” and would be closed until further notice. All staff in the building had safely evacuated, they added.Separately, Australian carrier Jetstar cancelled a flight scheduled for Wednesday morning from Sydney to Port Vila, citing “earthquake activity in Vanuatu and reports of possible damage to Port Vila airport infrastructure”.

The United States Geological Survey reported at least four aftershocks around Port Vila – with magnitudes ranging from 4.7 to 5.5 – in the two hours after the first earthquake. The first quake hit at a depth of 10km (6.2mi).

Authorities in neighbouring New Zealand and Australia said there was no tsunami threat for their countries.

Australia also said it “stands ready to support Vanuatu as the extent of the damage is assessed”.

“Vanuatu is family and we will always be there in times of need,” Foreign Minister Penny Wong wrote on X.

New Zealand said it is “deeply concerned” and is monitoring the situation. “Our thoughts are with the people and authorities of Vanuatu,” said Foreign Minister Winston Peters.