Temblor

When a 7.2 magnitude earthquake hit Taiwan's scenic and largely rural east coast county of Hualien on Wednesday, local official Chang Tung-yao knew exactly what to do, having experienced a similar temblor six years before.

A strong temblor rocked the southeast Aegean island of Rhodes on Wednesday. No damage was initially reported. 

According to the revised assessment of the Geodynamic Institute, it was a magnitude 5.9 temblor and occurred at 2.37 p.m. with an epicenter in the sea, 58 kilometers southeast of Lindos, at a depth of 22 km. The initial estimate was 5.7 Richter.

Desperate rescuers battled against the clock and heavy rain on June 24 to reach cut-off areas in eastern Afghanistan after a powerful earthquake killed at least 1,000 people and left thousands more homeless.

The relatively limited need for foreign assistance following last week's earthquake in Turkey did not provide an opportunity for it to act as icebreaker between Athens and Ankara - given, of course, that certain parties were thus inclined.

The head of Greece's Geodynamic Institute Akis Tselentis has warned of the prospect of a strong earthquake measuring 6 on the Richter scale in Athens.

"We must all be prepared," Tselentis said. "We have a beast near us. The Alkionides [islands on the eastern side of the Corinthian Gulf] at some point will groan and woe be unto us. We must be prepared," he stated.

A strong earthquake measuring 5.1 on the Richter scale, according to initial reports, at approximately 2:13pm shook the Greek capital for approximately 15 seconds.

The first reports from seismologists indicated that that the epicentre was four kilometres from Magoula, 23 kilometres northwest of Athens.

At least 226 people were killed by a powerful earthquake that struck central Mexico on Sept. 19, the nation's civil protection agency said.

The death toll in Mexico City surged to 117 people, Luis Felipe Puente, the head of the agency, wrote in a post on Twitter. 

The earthquake struck on the 32nd anniversary of a temblor that killed thousands in the capital. 

Alternate Economy Minister Alexis Haritsis on Tuesday approved the disbursement of 43 million euros in state funding to go toward helping the victims of a large earthquake that hit Lesvos in June.

The 6.3-magntitude temblor struck the eastern Aegean island on June 12, causing widespread damage.

Among the many buildings on Kos that sustained damage during last week's 6.6 magnitude earthquake was the Dodecanese island's archaeological museum. Thankfully, the historical structure built in 1936 survived the temblor but some of its ancient exhibits were less fortunate.

There are 50,000 buildings in Istanbul that are at great risk of collapse, Turkish Environment Minister Mehmet Özhaseki has said, noting that the fate of the edifices had a bearing on the lives of upward of a million people.