April 23, 1933 Earthquake: Dodecanese Islands, Greece

Ref #12753:

The event magnitude ranges between 6.43 and 6.70, depending on the magnitude scale used. The epicentral location falls around the geographical coordinates 36.80 N/27.30 E, with some deviating determinations in the various catalogues.

In addition, a local report (Koumentos 2000)[...]The above documents offer a wealth of information about the 1933 earthquake effects mainly in Kos, Nissyros and other islands. Slight damage was also caused in the area of Bodrum peninsula, SW Turkey (Fig. 1).

[...]about 90% of the houses in the city of Kos collapsed, while only a few administrative buildings remained standing. However, this happened in the historical center of the city. On the contrary, in the new city only about 50% of the houses were destroyed.

[...]in Pyli serious damage occurred and three victims were reported. In Antimachia nearly all the houses collapsed. The village of Kardamena was almost entirely destroyed, while the Cathedral and other four small churches suffered damage and needed repair. In Asfendiou moderate damage was reported. In Kefalos, at the westernmost side of the island, little damage was reported but the St. George church also needed repair after the earthquake.

From a collection of press reports (Aggelis 2003) it results that damage was also caused in the villages Emporio, Pali, Mandraki and Nikia at Nissyros Isl. (Fig. 4), while a local report (Koumentos 2000) mentioned repairable damage at the Panagia (Virgin Mary) Monastery situated to the east of Pali, at the north side of the island. No damage was reported in the islands of Rhodes and Kalymnos (Fig. 1). Slight damage in houses was reported from Bodrum, SW Turkey.

As regards the level of mortality caused by the 1933 earthquake there is a remarkable variability in the several documents examined. According to Mourikis (1934), 200 persons were killed and 600 injured. Papazachos and Papazachou (1997, 2003) adopted these figures from Mourikis (1934) although the last is not a quite reliable author for the reason that his earthquake catalog does not provide information sources [...]In the Album of Kos (Manousis 1934), various estimates can be found with the number of casualties ranging from 200 or 300 and up to several hundreds, but only 122 names of people killed were listed. The estimated number of injuries varies from 600 up to a few thousands[...]collection and evaluation of various press reports, however, Aggelis (2003) estimated that in Kos 149 persons perished and more than 600 were injured. A careful examination of official archives by Chatzivasiliou (1990) showed that in Kos city the total number of victims reached 178[...]Therefore, we adopted that the total number of victims caused by the 1933 earthquake reached 181, while a realistic estimate of the total number of injuries would be around 600.

Ref #4408:

The city of Cos was entirely destroyed. Antimacheia, Asfentiou, Kardamaena and Pylio· were partly or entirely destroyed. 200 people were killed and 600 were injured.

Ref #10476:

05:57:34.97 UTC, 36.759 N 27.299 E, depth 15, 6.43 Mw

Ref #9910:

05:57:37.44 UTC, 36.516 N, 27.15 E, depth 35, 6.8 magnitude