The magnitude 6.4 earthquake that shook Cyprus overnight Monday and was felt in Israel, again raised the question of emergency readiness in case of a major tremor.
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The European Mediterranean Seismological Centre said the quake was at a depth of 2 kilometers (1.24 miles) and the rattle was felt throughout Israel, including in Tel Aviv, Beersheba, Jerusalem, Haifa, and Rehovot.
This was the second tremor to reverberate across the Mediterranean in three weeks, with the previous one, magnitude 5.7, hitting Crete, Greece on Dec. 29.
Israel is one of the countries located along the Great Rift Valley – a series of contiguous geographic trenches running approximately 7,000 kilometers (4,300 miles) long and stretching from the Middle East in the north to Mozambique in the south.
The area is seismically active and features volcanoes, hot springs, geysers, and frequent earthquakes.
Professor Zohar Gvirtzman, who heads the Geological Survey of Israel – a public sector organization that advised the government on all aspects of geoscience – told Channel 12 News on Tuesday that while there was no reason on panic, the recent quakes could be foretelling of what Israel could experience in the future.
"If a magnitude 6.5 earthquake were to hit Tiberias, Kiryat Shmona, or Eilat, we can expect massive damage nationwide," Gvirtzman warned.
"We are gearing for a severe event of this nature and while we hope it doesn't happen, we have to be ready for it. Our buildings must be up to code and it's extremely important that all strategic infrastructure is up to code"
Revised building codes over the past few years mean that "we are much better off than we used to be, but there are thousands of buildings in Israel that predate the 1970s and they have to be reinforced," he stressed.
Large earthquakes are rare in Israel, but minor ones occur frequently, Gvirtzman explained, adding that the last few weeks were no different.
"These [seismic] systems are active constantly. Are we heading toward a cluster [of quakes and aftershocks]? We have very advanced equipment but it is still hard to say. In any case, this is not a coincidence. Something is happening there," he said, referring to the fault line.
For all of its advanced and accurate systems, the Geological Survey cannot predict when or where a tremor could hit, or its magnitude, Gvirtzman explained.
"We can offer a statistical analysis and we know that every few years there's a major earthquake along the Great Rift Valley – this is what prompts revisions to building codes.
"We know that on average, the Great Rift Valley area experiences a magnitude 5 earthquake every 10 years, a magnitude 6 quake every 100 years, and a magnitude 7 one every few thousand years."
A 2018 state comptroller report deemed Israel grossly unprepared for a major earthquake, as tens of thousands of buildings were not up to code.
Israel and the region experienced two major quakes in the past, in 1927 and in 1837.
The July 11, 1927 Jericho earthquake was a devastating event that caused extensive damage to the cities of Bethlehem, Jerusalem, Jericho, Ramle, Tiberias, and Nablus, killing 287 people.
The epicenter of the magnitude 6.2 earthquake was pegged in the northern area of the Dead Sea.
The Jan. 1, 1837 Galilee earthquake all but leveled the northern city of Safed and killed over 5,000 people.
To this day, it is considered one of the largest seismic events that have occurred along the Dead Sea Transform fault system, which marks the boundary of the African tectonic plate and the Arabian plate.
Experts studying the earthquake have said that its epicenter was mostly likely just north of Safed and it probably would have measured a magnitude of 6.5-7 on the Richter scale.
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