The intervention of rescue teams was immediate, and 85 persons were safely extricated. The Athens plane lies in a piece of crust under extension. The large grabens of the Corinth and Euboea gulfs on the relief map have resulted from concentration of the extensional deformation. Epicentral maps of the area show a compatible pattern, with intense activity in the major grabens, particularly in the Gulf of Corinth, and scarce seismicity in and around Athens. Region and seismotectonic setting.
Fault lines follow features of the topographic relief.
The seismic history of Athens spans 25 centuries. In the 5th century BC, there are reports of earthquakes that have been associated with the graben of the north Euboea Gulf. After an information gap of almost 16 centuries, during which the city was reduced to an insignificant town, the records offer an account of rather severe earthquake damage to the city on September 3rd, 1705. The earthquake caused considerable damage to various structures in and around the Acropolis that had been weakened by the Venetian siege of 1687. Subsequent small earthquakes have caused panic and some damage to precarious stone monuments.