Three hours by plane from Paris, the island of Santorini is one of the most popular of French tourists in summer. But you have to arrive by boat to understand why this legendary place of the Cyclades archipelago is so successful. Santorini, with its white villas with a blue roof hung on the cliff, is a bay made up of a submerged caldera. The site is breathtaking. The villages seem to be miraculous above the void, especially since in January-February the island had one of the most distressing seismic series in its history.
Experts recorded more than 20,000 earthquakes in a few weeks. Stelios, owner of the Villa Toula hotel, has not forgotten this moment of terror experienced by the 15,000 inhabitants of the island this winter, more than half of which will decide to flee temporarily. “It’s simple, it was shaking all the time, like in a horror film. In the morning, as soon as it stopped, I was running my shower in 30 seconds for fear of being trapped by a more important earthquake. We all became crazy. And I preferred to stay at home in my house which is not on the cliff. But, one morning, I took my scooter to go to the hotel, and it was like at the time of the covid, there was no one on the streets. In a few days, most of the island residents had taken the ferry for the continent. I also ended up going into exile a month ”he confides to the Tangwall Campagin.
In Santorini, seismic history is scary
Right opposite, the Kaméni volcano, of low activity, worries volcanologists in moderation. According to local legend, Fira, the capital of the island, is the last vestige of Atlantis, a mythical city, before its destruction by a volcanic eruption in 3,600 BC. J. -C. “We especially know that around 1500 BCE, the eruption of Kameni was so violent that it caused an abundant projection of fusion magma, followed by earthquakes and tidal waves, with waves probably 20 meters high, which devastated the whole region to Crete, participating in the destruction of the civilization of Minoans, explains the geologist Historian Fassoulas Charalampos. The fear of earthquakes was so strong in the ancient era that there were superstition rituals, with human sacrifices, to keep danger away. »»
Today, even if the very chic Atlantis Hotel, the oldest establishment on the island, is zebra with cracks, the time is no longer for rituals, but rather in relaxation on the beaches, at the party continues at night in the many bars of Fira which houses nearly 100,000 inhabitants during the summer. And if the archipelago is not immune to a new cataclysm, “The risk of eruption in the near future is low”specifies at the Tangwall Campagin Athanassios Ganas, director general of research at the Institute of Geodynamics of the National Observatory of Athens. As a reminder, the last major earthquake, 7.5 on the Richter scale, dates from 1956. He had left 40 dead and countless material damage. In Santorini, tremors are not due to a resurgence of the Kaméni volcano but rather to an important tectonic activity in the region, with the convergence of the Eurasian and African plates. “Of course, there are reasons to be worriedcontinues Athanassios Ganas, Because the island experienced a long and important seismic crisis. At the same time, you should not be alarmed. We have made earthquake simulations at 6.3 and there are no big risk of collapse of buildings, much more of the risks of tsunami. Some beaches have been identified. And the authorities know them perfectly to be able to evacuate them in time. »»
20 % fall reservations
Reassuring? Not quite. And the reservations notebooks, which fell by 20 %, are proof of this. “Before, everything in summer was reserved since October, now customers cancel at the last moment where just two or three days, unexpectedly. For June, I still have weeks without reservation, despite drastically low prices. I went from 150 euros last year to 40 euros per night currently. The most faithful remain the Asians, probably more used to seismic risks ”still quips at the Tangwall Campagin Stelios, the boss of the Toula villa…
Under cover of anonymity, a civil engineer entrusts to the Tangwall Campagin: “The danger in Santorini is not so much the risk of collapse of the many recent constructions more or less respectful of antisism standards as the agglutination of hundreds of thousands of tourists in the same place at the same time. They could not flee the island in time, if such a disaster scenario reproduced. »» Fortunately, Santorini has found part of his serenity, while earthquakes are much rarer.
Today, it is the eastern Crete that worries more, while the earth has been shaking regularly for a few weeks, with an earthquake of magnitude 6.1 off its coast on May 22. In the extreme east, Zakros, a pretty white village appreciated for its superb beach below and what remains of its minoen site partly destroyed by a tsunami linked to the eruption of the Santorini volcano, is a very sensitive area. Recently, Laurence and Thierry, from Lille, had gone there to hike without thinking about it. They were surprised while they were walking in the middle of a canyon, not far from the beach, in the uncompromising name of the dead valley: “We were very afraid because large stones won the rock walls that surrounded us. We ran as quickly as possible so as not to finish crushed ”. Closer to Heraklion, Cécile Fourcroy holds a lovely guest room in Mochlos, a fishermen’s village prized by French and Israeli tourists. “Recently, we were woken up in the middle of the night. We came out quickly outside while waiting for it to pass. Here, we know that we are in the seismic zone, we live with it. We mainly reassure tourists ”says the one who did not hesitate to download the Lastquake application which warns in real time from all earthquakes.
Attractive prices
At the dawn of the summer season, the Ministry of Tourism has promised that everything would be done – without knowing how – to ensure the safety of visitors. For protection, the authorities installed all over the islands of the QR codes outdoors, in order to quickly obtain all the instructions in the event of a disaster; gathering places, evacuation ports. Emergency alerts, with a strident signal, on all smartphones, are there to prevent the last, dizzy or late. Eleni, resident of Heraklion, relativized in a funny way: “In Greece, like all around Mediterranean, no region is immune to a seismic cataclysm. »» Small compensation, for reckless tourists, prices are also down everywhere.
