TheJune8,20 eEarthquake 08,M

w
6.3,NWPeloponnes
DepartmentofCivilEngineering
ApostolosS.Papageorgiou
Uni ce versityofPatras,Gree
(papaga@upatras.gr)

AmoderatesizeearthquakewithMomentMagnitudeM
w
6.3(USGS)occurredon
Sunday,June08,2008at12:25:30UTC(03:25:30PMatepicenter),attheNW
cornerofPeloponnese,centralGreece,about35kmsouthwestofthecityofPatras,
inthevicinityofthetownsofAndravidhaandAmalias(locationofepicenter:
38.000N,21.468E;USGS).Theepicentralintensity(MMI)wasestimatedtobeVIII
(accelerographsatadistanceof~30kmfromtheepicenterrecordedPGA0.24g;
NOA),whilethecityofPatras(population164,000)andthenearbytownofRio
(wheretheRionAntirionBridge,named2005OutstandingCivilEngineering
AchievementAwardWinnerbyASCE,islocated;Combaultetal.2005)wereshaken
quitestrongly(MMIintensityVII;PGA0.12g).Thequakewasfeltinmanypartsof
Greece,andasfartothenorthandwestasTirana,Albania,andCosenza,Italy,
respectively.Thereweretwofatalitiesandseveralpeoplewereinjured(USGS;
NOA).About10,000structuressustainedsomekindofdamage.Severedamage
afflictedprimarily,althoughnotexclusively,oldmasonrystructures.InKatoAchaia,
othenortheastoftheepicenter,railroadtracksweredistorted.Liquefactionwas t
observedatvariouslocationsinthegeneralepicentralarea.

Anumberofsignificantearthquakeeventshaveoccurredintheneighborhoodofthe
presenteventinthelasttwentyyears(NOA):VartholomioOct16,1988M=6.0,
yrgosMarch26,1993M=5.5andM=5.8,VartholomioDecember2,2002M=5.8, P
PatrasJuly14,1993M=5.6.

ThecrustofmainlandGreeceandtheAegeanSeaislocatedbetweenthreemajor
tectonicplates:TheEurasian,AfricanandArabianplates.ThecrustofAsiaMinor
(Turkey),underthepressureoftheEurasianandArabianplatesissqueezedoutto
thewest,andthus,inturn,appliespressuretothevariousmicroplatesthat
constitutethecrustoftheAegeanSeaandmainlandGreece.Theinducedtectonic
stressesareaccommodatedbydeformationzonesthatareprimarilyeasttrending
andnortheasttrending.Theeasttrendingdeformationzonesareassociatedwith
normalfaultingmechanisms,whilethenortheasttrendingdeformationzonesare
associatedwithstrikeslipfaultingmechanisms(Goldsworthyetal.2002;Nystand
Thatcher,2004;USGS).ThedistributionofaftershocksoftheJune8,2008,
earthquakedelineateanortheasttrendingfaultplane,consistentwiththefault
mechanisminferredbyUSGSandNOA(seeEMSC,2008)whichindicatesanearly
verticalrightlateralstrikeslipfaultplane.Thestrikeofthefaultplaneis,forall
racticalpurposes,paralleltotheCephaloniaFaultZonewhichislocatedtothe
ortheastofthecausativefaultthatgeneratedtheJune8,2008event.
p
n

Varioussurfaceexpressionsofthefaultinghavebeenobservedandareunder
investigation(Kokkalas,etal.2008).Inparticular,northeasttrendingruptureshave
beenobservedina500mwidezoneofdiffusedeformation,locatedroughlyinthe
areawheretheaftershockclusterintersectsthecoast.Thisrupturezonehasa
engthof~4kmandalignswiththedirectionestablishedbytheaftershock l
distribution.

Asignificantnumberofstrongmotioninstrumentsintheregionofthecausative
faultweretriggered.StrongmotioninstrumentsasfarasCorinthandAthenstothe
eastandKalamatatothesouth,weretriggered(NOA).Several(16)ofthese
instrumentswereoperatedbyNOA,whileafewothers(5)wereoperatedbyITSAK.
AsignificantnumberofaccelerogramshasbeenrecordedalsoattheRioAntirion
bridge(personalcommunicationwiththestaffofGEFYRAthatoperatestheRion
Antirionbridge).Basedontheserecordings,theintensityofgroundshakingatthe
outhern(Rio)approachofthebridgewasstronger(PGA0.12g)thantheintensity s
atthenorthern(Antirion)approach.

ThestrongmotiondatarecordedwithinstrumentsoperatedbyITSAKweremade
immediatelyandreadilyavailabletothepublic.Horizontalcomponentsofthreeof
theITSAKstations(PYR1,VAR2andPAT3,recordedatPyrgos,Vartholomioand
Patras,respectively)areshownontheFigure.Theserecordingssuggestthatthe
rupturepropagatedprimarilytothenortheast,althoughsomepropagationtothe
southwestcannotbeexcludedinviewofthestrongaccelerations(0.24g)recorded
atAmaliadawithinstrumentsoperatedbyNOA.Themaineventwascomposedofat
leasttwomainsubevents,thesignaturesofwhichareevidentontherecordingsof
stationsPYR1andVAR2.Theradiationsofthesesubeventsarefusedinthe
recordingsofPAT3.Furthermore,thefrequencycontentofthemotionrecordedat
PAT3indicatesthatthesedimentsunderlyingthePAT3stationstronglyaffectedthe
incomingwaves.Basingeneratedsurfacewavesarefairlyevidentevenonthe
accelerationrecord.ThespectraofthemotionsrecordedatPAT3indicateastrong
amplificationoftheincomingseismicenergyovertheperiodband0.801.50sec.It
snecessaryhowevertocautionthatfurthercarefulinvestigationsarenecessaryto
onfirmtheabovepreliminaryobservations.
i
c

REFERENCES

EMSC:EuropeanMediterraneanSeismologicalCentre,http://www.emsc
csem.org/index.php?page=current&sub=recent&evt=20080608_GREECE,(accessed
June20,2008).

GEFYRA:Rion_AntirionBridge,http://www.gefyra.gr,(accessedJune20,2008).

TSAK:InstituteofEngineeringSeismologyandEarthquakeResistantStructures, I
http://www.itsak.gr/documents/AchaiaIlia/index.html,(accesse

OA:NationalObservatoryofAthens,InstituteofGeodynamics,
dJune20,2008).
N
http://www.gein.noa.gr/services/skyros.html,(accessedJun

USGS:USGeologicalSurvey:EarthquakeHazardsProgram,
ttp://earthquake.usgs.gov/eqcenter/eqinthenews/2008/us2008taaw/#details
e20,2008).
h ,
(accessedJune20,2008).

eyssandierandJ.M.Tourtois(2005).Structural
RionAntirionBridge,GreeceConcept,Design,and
Combault,J.,A.Pecker,J.P.T
ngineeringInternational, E
Construction,1,pp.2227.

oldsworthy,M.,J.JacksonandJ.Haines(2002).Thecontinuityofactivefault G
systemsinGreece,Geophys.J.Int.,148,596618

KokkalasS.,P.Xypolias,I.Koukouvelas(2008).SurfacerupturesoftherecentM
w
6.3
June08,2008)earthquakeeventinthenorthwesternPeloponnese:apreliminary (
fieldreport.

Nyst,M.andW.Thatcher(2004).Newconstraintsontheactivetectonic
deformationoftheAegean,JOURNALOFGEOPHYSICALRESEARCH,VOL.109,
B11406.

FIGURECAPTION

Distributionofaftershocksfollowingthemainevent(June08,2008at12:25:30
UTC)upuntilJune11,2008,at03:20UTC(modifiedfromanoriginalfigure
preparedbyDrAth.Ganas,NationalObservatoryofAthens,andpostedonEMSC).
Alsoshownarethetwoorthogonalhorizontalcomponentsofaccelerationrecorded
atthestationsPYR1,VAR2andPAT3.