Landforms

A light earthquake was recorded off the coast of western Greece on Thursday morning, according to the the Athens-based Geodynamic Institute.

At approximately 9.30 a.m. local time, a magnitude 4.3 earthquake was recorded 53 kilometres west of the islands of Strofades in the Ionian Sea, at a depth of 15 kilometers.

No damages were reported.

A pair of Turkish fighter jets on Monday violated Greek air space in the Aegean for the second time in as many hours on Monday, flying over the island of Chios, in the eastern Aegean, at 3,700 feet, the Hellenic National Defense General Staff (GEETHA) said. 

Shipping Minister Giannis Plakiotakis announced on Friday that only permanent residents and supply trucks will be allowed to travel to the Aegean islands, in a bid to ban the unnecessary movement of people within the country and halt the spread of the new coronavirus.

An earthquake measuring 4.2 on the Richter scale occurred in the sea area near the southeastern Aegean island of Kasos today early Monday at 3.53 a.m.
According to the Geodynamic Institute of the National Observatory of Athens, the quake's epicenter in an underwater area 11 kilometers southeast of Kasos.

Turkey rescued two of its citizens stranded on Mount Everest in the Himalayas, the country's foreign minister said on March 16.

"We reached our citizens: Muhammed Emin Özyazıcı and Muratcan Kaya who were stuck on Everest by helicopter," Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu said in a tweet.

Authorities have begun the demolition of 22 illegal buildings on Makronisos, a 20-square kilometer island off the eastern Attica coast that is listed as a historic site and which was used as a place of exile for political prisoners from the 1940s to the 1970s.

Avalanche killed five people in Dachstein, according to Austrian media. According to police information, the five were Czech citizens. Winter sports lovers were swept away by the avalanche this morning at about 9:30 am (10:30 Bulgarian time).

The incident happened at an altitude of between 2,700 and 2,800 meters.

Athens was faced on Thursday with an apparent attempt by Ankara to stoke tensions at the Greek-Turkish land border after Turkey said it was deploying 1,000 officers of its elite police units to stop the return of migrants into its territory as Turkish officials continued with inflammatory rhetoric against their Greek counterparts. 

A Greek-flagged chemical tanker with a crew of 22 has been attacked by pirates in the Gulf of Guinea off western Africa, the ship's management company said Thursday.

There were no immediate reports of injuries.

Migrants walk on a dirt road following their arrival on a dinghy on a beach near the village of Skala Sykamias, after crossing part of the Aegean Sea from Turkey to the island of Lesvos, Thursday. [Costas Baltas/Reuters]