Greece earthquakes

M6.0 earthquake 5 km WNW of Fylí, Greece

A magnitude 6.0 earthquake struck 5 km WNW of Fylí, Greece on Tue, Sep 7, 1999, 2:56 PM GMT+3 (11:56 UTC), 10 km (6 mi) below the surface.

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Map

Where this earthquake was located, with the others nearby. Select one for its page.

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The earthquake

Magnitude: 6.0 (Mwc, centroid moment), strong
Magnitude from: USGS National Earthquake Information Center
Local time: Tue, Sep 7, 1999, 2:56 PM GMT+3
UTC: 1999-09-07 11:56:49 UTC
Depth: 10.0 km (6.2 mi), shallow
Epicenter: 38.119° N, 23.605° E
Region: Greece
Strongest shaking: IX, violent shaking
Tsunami flag: No
Status: Reviewed by a seismologist

Magnitude estimates

Different scales measure different things and differ by a few tenths. The USGS marks one as preferred, and it is the one this page uses.

Mag.	Scale	Computed by	Notes
6.0	Mwc, centroid moment	USGS National Earthquake Information Center	Preferred · Reviewed
5.98	Mw, moment	ISC-GEM global catalog	Final · ±0.1
6.0	Mwc, centroid moment	Global CMT project	Preliminary
5.65	Me, energy	Choy, USGS energy magnitude	Reviewed

Deaths and damage

From NOAA NCEI’s Significant Earthquake Database (record 5531), matched to this event by time and place.

Deaths: 143
Injuries: 1,600
Damage: $4.2 billion
Houses destroyed: 53,000

Where the literature gives no number, NCEI records a description on a scale of 1 to 4, printed here in its words. Damage is in millions of US dollars of the year of the event, not adjusted for inflation.

NOAA’s full record of this earthquake

From Wikipedia

The 1999 Athens earthquake occurred on September 7 at 14:56:51 local time near Mount Parnitha in Greece with a moment magnitude of 6.0 and a maximum Mercalli intensity of IX (Violent). The proximity to the Athens metropolitan area resulted in widespread structural damage, mainly to the nearby suburban towns of Ano Liosia, Acharnes, Fyli, Thrakomakedones, Kifissia, Metamorfosi, Kamatero and Nea Filadelfeia. More than 100 buildings (including three major factories) across those areas collapsed trapping scores of victims under their rubble while dozens more were severely damaged. With damage estimated at $3–4.2 billion, 143 people were killed, and up to 1,600 were treated for injuries in Greece's deadliest natural disaster in almost half a century.

Text from Wikipedia, “1999 Athens earthquake”, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Quoted as written; the full article has the rest.

The article is about the earthquake NOAA’s record describes, matched to this one by date, place and magnitude.

What happened

The USGS’s account of the effects of this earthquake.

One hundred forty-three people killed, 1,600 injured, 50,000 homeless and at least 53,000 buildings damaged or destroyed (IX) in the Athens area. Preliminary estimate of damage at 655 million U.S. dollars. Felt in much of central Greece and as far as Izmir, Turkey.

From the USGS event page for usp0009e46. U.S. Geological Survey text and figures are in the public domain.

Shaking

The USGS ShakeMap: shaking estimated from seismic stations and the quake’s size, on the Modified Mercalli intensity scale.

Strongest estimated: IX, violent shaking
Peak ground acceleration: 92.7% of gravity
Peak ground velocity: 4.4 cm/s
Map: Automatic

USGS ShakeMap: estimated shaking intensity around the epicenter — Estimated shaking intensity. Map: USGS ShakeMap.

Did you feel it?

No one has reported feeling this quake to the USGS.

Fault motion and ground failure

How the rock slipped, from the moment tensor, and the USGS estimate of landslides and liquefaction.

Faulting: Normal
Nodal plane 1: Strike 116°, dip 39°, rake -81°
Nodal plane 2: Strike 284°, dip 52°, rake -98°
Landslide alert: Yellow
Liquefaction alert: Yellow

How well it is located

Reviewed by a seismologist.

Depth from: OPERATOR_ASSIGNED

Nearest places

Distance and direction from each place to the epicenter, with its forecast.

Nearby

Within 100 km, magnitude 3.0 and up: 22 in the 60 days after this one and 1 in the 30 days before it.

After

Before

4.17 km WSW of Loukísia, GreeceFri, Sep 3, 8:29 AM GMT+3 · 9893 days ago · 31 km deep · 44 km away

Earthquakes today Greece earthquakes Live radar here

Sources

From the USGS Earthquake Hazards Program and its partner networks, event usp0009e46 (also filed as choy19990907115649, gcmtb090799c, gcmt19990907115649, atlas19990907115649, iscgem1655758). Read Sun, Oct 4, 2026, 7:36 AM UTC.