Cyprus overhauls seismic zone map, citing lessons from Colombia and Venezuela quakes

Local earthquakesTop News Cyprus overhauls seismic zone map, citing lessons from Colombia and Venezuela quakes Seismos Mixanima Relevant News Cyprus overhauls seismic zone map, citing lessons from Colombia and Venezuela quakes 11 August 2026 Limassol lifeguards save two teens from strong currents 11 August 2026 British Bases police make 27 arrests in weekly summer safety push 11 August 2026 newsroom 11 August 2026 FacebookXWhatsAppEmailPrintViber Cyprus has spent the past year revising its seismic zones, seismologist Sylvana Pilidou, Senior Geological Officer at the Geological Survey Department, said, speaking after the destructive 7.4-magnitude earthquake that struck Colombia the day before, and the consecutive 7.2 and 7.5-magnitude earthquakes in Venezuela in June. She said these were two destructive seismic events of similar magnitude but different origin, not directly related to each other but occurring in the same broader tectonic neighbourhood. On Cyprus, she said the ongoing revision of seismic zones is happening because scientists now have much better knowledge of the faults in the region, along with detailed and accurate catalogues of the region’s seismicity. In addition, she said, microzonation studies have now been completed in Cyprus’s main urban centres, giving a detailed picture of how the ground behaves under earthquake conditions. Pilidou said Cyprus now builds to strict specifications, and that updated scientific data is helping to further strengthen the resilience of buildings against seismic risk. She stressed that scientific knowledge, proper earthquake-resistant construction and new technologies can significantly reduce the impact of a future major earthquake. Where Venezuela and Colombia sit tectonically Venezuela and Colombia sit geographically in the northern part of South America and geologically at one of the planet’s most complex tectonic crossroads, where three major tectonic plates, the South American plate, the Caribbean plate and the Nazca plate, interact, causing complex fault zones, Pilidou said. She added that these earthquake-prone countries are trapped in a “tectonic vice,” which is also responsible for the existence of the Andes. Two earthquakes of different origin in Venezuela and Colombia Pilidou said the double earthquake in Venezuela, two consecutive quakes of magnitude Mw7.2 and Mw7.5, on June 24, 2026, occurred at a boundary where two tectonic plates slide horizontally past one another, while the Colombia earthquake of magnitude Mw7.4 on August 10, 2026, occurred in a zone where two plates collide and one sinks beneath the other. She said that because of their different tectonic origins, the Venezuela earthquake was shallow, while the Colombia earthquake had a large focal depth of 100-110km. This, she said, meant the Venezuela earthquake had very high local intensity, as shown on ground acceleration maps, while the Colombia earthquake had lower local intensity but affected a wider area on the Earth’s surface with strong ground shaking. The Colombia earthquake’s large focal depth had fortunately reduced its destructiveness compared with the Venezuela earthquake, which, in addition to being shallow, was also a double quake, causing particularly severe and prolonged ground shaking. Beyond these differences, she noted, some shared adverse geological, ground and construction factors contributed to making the consequences of both earthquakes tragic. These were loose, filled-in soils, which acted as a “seismic megaphone,” amplifying ground shaking and extending its duration. These soils also triggered other chain-reaction effects such as landslides and soil liquefaction, she said, and buildings in these areas are not built with adequate earthquake-resistant provisions. “In the tragic photographs being published, we see buildings made of brick or stone, or adobe structures, without steel reinforcement, some without visible foundations,” Pilidou said. Why wasn’t there a tsunami? A tsunami early-warning system operates in the Caribbean region, created after the devastating 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami. Yet neither earthquake caused a tsunami. Pilidou said some might attribute this to the epicentres being on land, but that isn’t necessarily correct, since powerful earthquakes of this magnitude are linked to large faults that can extend offshore and, under certain conditions, cause a tsunami. In these specific cases, she said, neither earthquake caused significant vertical movement of the seabed sufficient to trigger the phenomenon, the Venezuela quake because of the fault’s horizontal motion, and the Colombia quake because of its large focal depth. Are we building more safely in Cyprus? On Cyprus, Pilidou said building earthquake design is carried out by civil engineers based on the seismic zone map, which statistically estimates how strong ground motion can be in each area, and forms part of the relevant Eurocode, the main tool for earthquake-resistant design. As geoscientists, she said, “we contribute to protection from earthquakes at our own level, through continuous monitoring and assessment of seismicity in the Cyprus area, the study and mapping of faults and the region’s geological features, and so on, so that our country’s earthquake protection measures are based on realistic models of Cyprus’s seismic risk, through a reliable seismic zone map.” She said the seismic zones currently in force in Cyprus were officially issued in 2004 and were based on data available before 1994. Revising Cyprus’s seismic zones Pilidou said Cyprus has been revising its seismic zones for a year, in cooperation with experts from Cyprus and abroad. Asked why the revision is happening now, she pointed to the region’s improved fault knowledge, more accurate seismicity catalogues, and the recently completed microzonation studies. She also said Eurocode 8, which sets European standards for the earthquake-resistant design of structures, is currently being updated, and that every country adapts the Eurocode to its own geological conditions through a national annex. The revised seismic zones, she said, will soon be incorporated into Cyprus’s annex of the new Eurocode. “So the answer is yes, in Cyprus we now build to strict specifications, and with updated scientific data we are further strengthening the resilience of our buildings against seismic risk,” Pilidou said. Early-warning systems for earthquakes Pilidou said early-warning systems for earthquakes have begun operating in some countries. Using seismic sensors, these systems quickly calculate the parameters of an earthquake already under way, and send electronic alerts to distant areas before strong shaking arrives, taking advantage of the fact that electronic signals travel at the speed of light while seismic waves travel at much lower speeds, a few kilometres per second. She said these systems don’t predict earthquakes, but can sometimes offer valuable time, even just seconds, for protection and safety automation, such as braking trains, opening lift doors at the nearest floor, opening emergency exits to evacuate buildings, cutting off gas and electricity supplies, and safety measures on industrial production lines, data centres and surgical systems. Could this be applied in Cyprus? Asked whether such a system could be applied in Cyprus, Pilidou said this would be difficult. “The positions of ground-motion sensors and the geographic distribution of Cyprus’s seismicity, combined with the size of our island and the speeds at which seismic waves travel through the Earth’s interior, make early warning impossible,” she said. However, Google Android Earthquake Alerts, which does operate in Cyprus, uses more than 2 billion Android phones worldwide via their built-in motion sensors as a global, digital, dense, live seismological network, Pilidou said. The system quickly estimates an earthquake’s parameters and sends alerts to mobile phones in areas where strong shaking is expected. It can give a warning of a few seconds, or may not manage to in time, since time is needed both for the calculations and for transmitting the warnings, she said. The system has been operating in Cyprus in recent years and was partly activated during the two M>5.0 Paphos earthquakes in 2025, giving valuable seconds of warning in some cases, she said. In closing, Pilidou said earthquakes still cannot be predicted, but that this doesn’t mean people are defenceless. “Scientific knowledge, proper earthquake-resistant construction and new technologies can significantly reduce the impact of a future major earthquake,” she said, adding that this is perhaps the most important message left by the tragedies in Venezuela and Colombia. (Information from Cyprus News Agency) Subscribe to our Newsletter Latest News Limassol lifeguards save two teens from strong currents British Bases police make 27 arrests in weekly summer safety push Waste piles up in Manila waterways after days of monsoon rain A shame and an injustice to not be able attend his children’s funeral Tender for the terminal, and leasing out Promitheas Time to stop the antenna installation at Akrotiri The hate-fest, and Erhurman’s fun club Follow en.philenews on Google News and be the first to know all the news about Cyprus and the world.