Small Earthquakes Felt in Israel

Arutz Sheva:

The Home Front Defense Ministry held an assessment on Sunday evening, in the wake of several earthquakes that have been felt around Tiberias and the Galilee region in the past several days, two of them on Sunday alone.

Matzav: Second Earthquake Hits Israel In One Day, Fourth In Week

The second earthquake in one day rocked northern Israel today in the afternoon, making it the fourth in a week.

Residents of Tiveriah said they felt it, but no injuries were reported.

It was registered at a magnitude of 3.6.

As was the case in the two last earthquakes, no damage was recorded.

Times of Israel:

Seismologist Dov Lakovsky of the Geophysical Institute of Israel told The Times of Israel Sunday that there was no cause for alarm and that the recent quakes were just “a bit stronger than usual.” Such tremblers, he said, “happen all the time.”

Jpost: Two earthquakes in one day shake northern Israel

“They are on the same location more or less, so we assume they are acting on the same fault plane in the subsurface,” Dr. Uri Frieslander, general manager of the Israel Geophysical Institute, told The Jerusalem Post on Sunday afternoon.

“We cannot say that this event will yield something in the future. We are watching carefully the results of the seismological map.”

YNet:

"Either nothing will happen or there will an earthquake of much larger magnitude," said Dr. Avi Shapira, chairman of the inter-ministerial steering committee for earthquake preparation.

"A very frequent occurrence of earthquakes is rare but it's not impossible. It means that the region is unstable and in the process of rifting."

The director of the Geophysical Institute, Dr. Uri Frieslander, said that "it's impossible to completely rule out the possibility of a stronger quake, but it is possible that these smaller tremors will not precipitate anything. There have been just as many cases of small tremors preceding larger earthquakes as not."

On the other hand, Professor Amotz Agnon, a geologist and geophysicist, expressed concern that the recent earthquakes in northern Israel may indicate that a large event is ahead.

"Meanwhile, four earthquakes were felt, and four more were not, all in the area of the Kinneret. If the phenomenon keeps occurring we can definitely see it as a precedent for a big event," said Agnon.

"In the '90s there were three earthquakes felt in Israel: One in 1993 in the Eilat Bay measuring at 6 on the Richter scale, the second took place in Nairobi in 1995 and was a 7 – it resulted in deaths and destruction of buildings – and the third was in Cyprus in 1996, also registering a 7 plus. All three were preceded by the type of tremors we are currently experiencing."  

Kikar also asks:

Are the consecutive small quakes a warning for a big quake to come?  (לא עלינו)
They quote the above YNet article.

Behadrei weighs in too.