## 4 Seismicity of the Samos Island Area  
From several descriptive and parametric earthquake catalogues covering both the instrumental and the historical periods, it was concluded that the area of Samos is characterized by high seismicity [30; 31; 32; 33; 34]. According to these catalogues, several strong earthquakes (Mw \(\geq\) 6.0) occurred in the area of Samos Island from antiquity to present (Table 2 and Figure 6).  
\begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c c c c c c} \hline \hline
**Year** & **Month** & **Day** & **Long.** N\({}^{\circ}\) & **Lat.** E\({}^{\circ}\) & **Io (MM)** & **Mw** \\ \hline \(-\)200 & & & 37.7 & 26.9 & VIII & 6.3 \\
47 & & & 38.1 & 27.5 & VIII & 7.0 \\
1751 & 6 & 18 & 37.7 & 27.1 & VIII & 6.4 \\
1831 & 4 & 3 & 37.7 & 26.8 & VII & 6.0 \\
1846 & 6 & 25 & 37.6 & 26.976 & VII & 6.0 \\
1865 & 10 & 11 & 37.6 & 27.0 & VII & 6.0 \\
1868 & 5 & 3 & 37.6 & 26.9 & VII & 6.0 \\
1873 & 1 & 31 & 37.7 & 27.1 & VII & 6.5 \\
1877 & 10 & 14 & 37.7 & 27.0 & VIII & 6.0 \\
1893 & 3 & 12 & 38.0 & 27.2 & VII & 6.6 \\
1904 & 8 & 11 & 37.66 & 26.93 & VIII & 6.8 \\
1955 & 7 & 16 & 37.55 & 27.15 & VIII & 6.9 \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular}
\end{table}
Table 2: Focal parameters of the known strong earthquakes of moment magnitude Mw \(\geq\) 6.0 that occurred in the area of Samos before the 2020 earthquake based on [30].  
The most recent instrumentally recorded earthquakes with a considerable impact on Samos Island are the 11 August 1904 earthquake and the 16 July 1955 one (Figure 6). Due to the 1904 earthquake, considerable damage was caused to several villages of Samos. A total of 540 houses were completely destroyed, while 4 fatalities and 7 injuries were reported. The M = 6.9 earthquake of 16 July 1955 caused damage to the Agathonisi and Samos Islands and to Balat in Turkey [30]. In Samos, 60 houses were destroyed, 200 were severely damaged, and 600 were slightly damaged. As regards the impact on the local population, only four injured were reported. The maximum intensity was VIII and assigned to Agathonisi Island, while in Samos the maximum intensity was VI+ and assigned to several villages, including Neo Karlovasi, Kontaeika, Kokkari, Pyrgos, Goumaieka, Leka, and Pagoda [30]. A tsunami was generated and affected Heraion and Tigani bay, located in the Pythagoreio area. In Heraio, the tsunami height was 2 m and the inundation depth 20 m [30]. The largest aftershock occurred on 28 August 1955 with magnitude M = 5.1. Very recently, [35] used amplitudes of seismic waves recorded at Agamennone-type seismographs and recalculated magnitudes of earthquakes occurring in Greece in the time period 1901-1910. The recalculated magnitudes are calibrated over surface-wave magnitudes determined for Greek earthquakes for the post-1910 time interval [36; 37]. For the 1904 mainshock, a magnitude Mw = 6.3 was calculated, which is consistent with magnitudes determined in many earthquake catalogues, e.g., Ms = 6.2 [38], Mw = 6.1 [39], and Mw = 6.0 [32].  
More recently, moderate earthquake activity associated with normal faulting of an E-W trend and magnitudes ranging from Mw = 5.5 to Mw = 5.9 was recorded in the area north of Samos Island during October 2005 [40]. Microseismicity concentrated in distinctive clusters was recorded near Samos and Kusadasi Bay from July 2007 to September 2012, showing predominance of normal faulting with a significant contribution of strike-slip motion [41].  
The 30 October 2020, Mw = 7.0, Samos earthquake is one more in a series of destructive earthquakes that have affected the eastern Aegean Sea. The most recent events of this series  
Figure 6: The red circles correspond to the earthquakes of Table 2. The main active faults of the eastern Aegean are also presented with red lines based on [9] and [10] along with the epicenter of the 30 October 2020, Mw = 7.0, Samos earthquake (white star) from [1].  
are the 12 June 2017, Mw = 6.3, Lesvos earthquake [42; 43] and the 21 July 2017, Mw = 6.6, Kos earthquake [44; 45].