M6.4 Earthquake Near Várda, Greece, Jun 8, 2008

Map

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

The earthquake

Magnitude: 6.4 (Mwc, centroid moment), strong
Magnitude from: USGS National Earthquake Information Center
Local time: Sun, Jun 8, 2008, 3:25 PM GMT+3
UTC: 2008-06-08 12:25:29 UTC
Depth: 16.0 km (9.9 mi), shallow
Epicenter: 37.963° N, 21.525° E
Region: Greece
Felt reports: 451
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
6.4	Mwc, centroid moment	USGS National Earthquake Information Center	Preferred · Reviewed
6.38	Mw, moment	ISC-GEM global catalog	Final · ±0.1
6.4	Mwc, centroid moment	Global CMT project	Preliminary
6.93	Me, energy	Choy, USGS energy magnitude	Reviewed

Deaths and damage

From NOAA NCEI’s Significant Earthquake Database (record 7925), matched to this event by time and place.

Deaths: 2
Injuries: 240
Damage: Severe (about $5 to $25 million)
Houses destroyed: 1,156

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 2008 Peloponnese earthquake killed two people, injured more than 220 and left at least 2,000 people homeless in north western Peloponnese, Greece, on June 8. The earthquake hit the area at 1525 EET (1325 UTC), with a moment magnitude of 6.5, according to the Athens Geodynamic Institute. It was strongly felt as far away as in Athens and in parts of southern Italy. The US Geological Survey reported that the quake had a magnitude of 6.4. The epicenter of the tremor was located about 15 miles (32 km) southwest of the Greek port city of Patras, at a depth of 16 km. Interior Minister Prokopis Pavlopoulos dispatched rescue and recovery teams (including members of five government agencies), the Red Cross and units of the army in order to assess the damage and the needs of survivors in the earthquake affected areas.

Text from Wikipedia, “2008 Peloponnese 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.

Two people killed, at least 240 injured and at least 1,156 buildings damaged or destroyed in Achaia and Ileia. Felt (VIII) at Kato Achaia; (VII) at Patrai and Rion; (VI) at Agrinion; (V) at Corinth, Tripolis and Zakynthos; (IV) at Agia Paraskevi, Aigina, Argostolion, Athens, Ioannina, Kallithea, Karditsa, Kifisia, Nydri, Preveza, Trikala and Volos; (III) at Amarousion, Galatsion, Glifadha, Kalamakion, Khalandrion, Larisa, Nea Erithraia, Nea Ionia, Nea Smirni, Nikaia, Palaion Faliron and Piraeus; (II) at Aigaleo, Chani, Korydallos and Voula. Felt in most parts of Greece. Also felt at Tirana, Albania; Barletta, Brindisi, Cosenza, Lecce, Matera, Naples and Taranto, Italy; Ohrid, Macedonia.

From the USGS event page for usp000g8vs. 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: 41.2% of gravity
Peak ground velocity: 3.7 cm/s
Map: Automatic

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

Did you feel it?

451 people reported to the USGS what they felt; the strongest reported shaking was VIII, severe shaking.

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 301°, dip 74°, rake 7°
Nodal plane 2: Strike 209°, dip 83°, rake 164°
Landslide alert: Yellow
Liquefaction alert: Yellow

Tectonic setting

Why earthquakes happen here, from the USGS tectonic summary.

The earth's crust and lithosphere in the eastern Mediterranean constitute a broad boundary region between three major tectonic plates, the Eurasia, Africa, and Arabia plates. The motions of these major plates drive smaller microplates, and it is the shapes and motions of these smaller plates that determine the locations and focal mechanisms of most intraplate earthquakes in the region.

The earthquake of June 8, 2008, was generated by stresses resulting from the motion of the small Aegean Sea plate southwest with respect to the Eurasia plate with a velocity of about 30 mm/y. The boundary between the Aegean plate and the Eurasia plate in central Greece is diffuse. Seismicity is concentrated in east-trending and northeast-trending zones of deformation. The east-trending zones are characterized by predominantly normal faulting. The northeast-trending zones are characterized by predominately strike-slip faulting earthquakes. The focal-mechanism of the earthquake of June 8 is consistent with the shock having been caused by strike-slip faulting similar to that occurring within the northeast-trending zones. Since the beginning of the twentieth century, the largest crustal earthquakes of central Greece have had magnitudes of about 7.2.

From the USGS event page for usp000g8vs. U.S. Geological Survey text and figures are in the public domain.

USGS summary poster

How well it is located

Reviewed by a seismologist.

Depth from: OPERATOR_ASSIGNED
Station coverage gap: 26°
Stations used: 706

Nearest places

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

Nearby

Within 100 km, magnitude 3.4 and up: 80 in the 60 days after this one and 15 in the 30 days before it.

After

The first 60 of 80.

Before

Sources

From the USGS Earthquake Hazards Program and its partner networks, event usp000g8vs (also filed as us2008taaw, choy20080608122529, gcmtc200806081225a, gcmt20080608122529, atlas20080608122530, iscgem13231364). Read Fri, Oct 2, 2026, 9:49 PM UTC.