Greece earthquakes

M6.3 earthquake 8 km S of Kanaláki, Greece

A magnitude 6.3 earthquake struck 8 km S of Kanaláki, Greece on Thu, Aug 14, 2003, 8:14 AM GMT+3 (05:14 UTC), 10 km (6 mi) below the surface.

Préveza forecast More in Greece

Map

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

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The earthquake

Magnitude: 6.3 (Mwc, centroid moment), strong
Magnitude from: USGS National Earthquake Information Center
Local time: Thu, Aug 14, 2003, 8:14 AM GMT+3
UTC: 2003-08-14 05:14:54 UTC
Depth: 10.0 km (6.2 mi), shallow
Epicenter: 39.160° N, 20.605° E
Region: Greece
Strongest shaking: VIII, severe 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
6.3	Mwc, centroid moment	USGS National Earthquake Information Center	Preferred · Reviewed
6.26	Mw, moment	ISC-GEM global catalog	Final · ±0.1
6.2	Mwc, centroid moment	Global CMT project	Preliminary
6.8	Me, energy	Choy, USGS energy magnitude	Reviewed

Deaths and damage

From NOAA NCEI’s Significant Earthquake Database (record 5715), matched to this event by time and place.

Injuries: 50
Damage: Moderate (about $1 to $5 million)
Houses damaged: Some (about 51 to 100)

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 The tsunami it caused

What happened

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

At least 50 people injured, some buildings and infrastructure damaged and landslides occurred on Lefkada. Damage to buildings in the Preveza area. Felt in much of southern and western Greece. Felt (IV) at Bitola and (III) at Skopje, former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. Also felt in parts of southern Italy.

From the USGS event page for usp000c4tt. 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: VIII, severe shaking
Peak ground acceleration: 76.1% of gravity
Peak ground velocity: 4.2 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: Strike-slip
Nodal plane 1: Strike 18°, dip 59°, rake -174°
Nodal plane 2: Strike 285°, dip 85°, rake -31°
Landslide alert: Yellow
Liquefaction alert: Yellow

Tectonic setting

Why earthquakes happen here, from the USGS tectonic summary.

On a broad scale the tectonics of Greece is controlled by the northward migration of the Arabian and African Plates, and the counterclockwise rotation and westward translation of the Anatolian-Aegean block, relative to a fixed Eurasian Plate. The Anatolian-Aegean block is a lens shaped block that stretches west-to-east from near the west coast of Greece to eastern Turkey, and north-to-south from the Black Sea to the middle of the Mediterranean Sea. Near the Anatolian-Aegean block's northern border, it is moving westward relative to the Eurasian Plate at roughly 3 cm per year. This recent earthquake occurred in northern Greece, a highly seismic and rapidly deforming region. There is a magnitude 5 or larger earthquake about every two years within 60 km of this recent earthquake.

From the USGS event page for usp000c4tt. U.S. Geological Survey text and figures are in the public domain.

How well it is located

Reviewed by a seismologist.

Depth from: OPERATOR_ASSIGNED
Station coverage gap: 32°
Stations used: 572

Nearest places

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

Nearby

Within 100 km, magnitude 3.3 and up: 188 in the 60 days after this one and 5 in the 30 days before it.

After

The first 60 of 188.

Before

Earthquakes today Greece earthquakes Live radar here

Sources

From the USGS Earthquake Hazards Program and its partner networks, event usp000c4tt (also filed as atlas20030814051400, atlas20030814051454, choy20030814051454, gcmtc081403b, gcmt20030814051454, iscgem7061365). Read Thu, Oct 1, 2026, 8:18 AM UTC.