Tweet This
Nature is ever changing, modifying landscapes and rebuilding itself. Often times this process happens on timescales much beyond human timescales, however, that was not the case a few weeks ago on the pristine island of Lefkada. On Tuesday, November 17th a magnitude 6.5 earthquake centered close to Nidiri shook the island of Lefkada .
Egremni beach was named as one of the top beaches around the world by CNN, and was a favorite vacation destination for many Greek and European travelers.
The earthquake triggered landslides on the western coast of Lefkada, specifically on Egremni beach, a popular vacation destination and beautiful beach. Thankfully this earthquake took place during the a winter month for the beach, limiting fatalities There were two fatalities as a result of the earthquake, one that was killed from the landslide hitting her house.
Lefkada Earthquake Geologic Setting
The earthquake off the coast of Lefkada was a result of a transform strike-slip fault proximal to the regional plate boundary between the Africa (Nubian) and Eurasia plates. Strike slip faulting occurs when there is little to no vertical displacement and primarily horizontal movement. The two sides of the fault move in opposite directions along the fault to relieve subsurface stresses.
The African plate converges with the Eurasia plate at 9 mm per year as it moves to the north. In other words, the continent of Africa is colliding with Asian continent at about 9mm/yr. This collision of continental plates causes frequent earthquakes medium to large magnitude earthquakes. In the past century there have been 14 M6.5 earthquakes within 250km of recent Lefkada earthquake. The northward movement of the African plate in relation to the Eurasian plate acted to close the Tethys Sea and create what we now know as the Mediterranean Sea.
Before And After Egremni Beach
To get a sense for the dramatic change in the Egremni beach's landscape, I've compiled a few before and after images. You will notice that the before images have looming cliffs right behind the beach, a forewarning of what could occur.
After the earthquake triggered a landslide on Egremni beach, we can see boulders and debris littered throughout the previous beach.
Egremni beach post landslide (Credit: news.in.gr)
Rubble and dust fly into the air as the landslide moves rock down the western slope of the nearby cliffs.
Aerial view of landslide in Afales Bay on Ithaca, Greece (Credit: news.in.gr)
Lastly, you can watch a video of the landslide in action, taken by a fisherman off the west coast of Lefkada.
It will likely take quite some time before the Egremni beach is naturally restored to a beach. Erosion from normal waves and storms will winnow away the landslide material. Unfortunately, this process occurs over much longer timescales than the landslide that destroyed the beach.
