Due to the fact that greece is next to a major fault, it places Greece in a bad place to be. Greece sits in one of the most seismically active locations, it sits on what is referred to a the "box" of fault lines. It is located right in the middle of the Hellenic Arc with is the highest stressed part of the collision zone of Eurasia and Africa. On top of being on a major fault line its in a dangerous location, then on top of that it is surrounded and on top of major volcanoes which also causes disastrous quakes. Many believe that these volcanoes are overdue for a major eruption leading to a major natural disaster. Many of the larger quakes to strike Greece or its surroundings have been under water quakes. This causes large amounts of damage but nothing compared to a large land strike. The ancient Greeks blamed earthquakes on the god of the sea, Poseidon. This leads may to believe that many of the quakes that occurred then were larger ocean quakes. Some of the largest quakes in the counties history were: The Athens quake of 1999, The quake of 1953 and The eruption if Thira (Santorini).

Many wonder, if this is such a seismically active area what is being done to help to be prepared for another large strike? Scientists are much more aware of possible strikes and watch consult to stay on top of signs. There has been found writings from pre 20th century of seismic recordings. Nowadays there is technology that closely watches the earths movements. According to Natural Hazards and Earth Science Systems "In order to improve the detection for monitoring the 2011 seismic activity and the assessment of the seismic hazard, NOA installed four portable, real-time broad-band seismological stations that encircled the Messinia basin region, on 20 October 2011, to complement the permanent seismological stations of the HUSN." Also much like that of California, buildings are built to withhold larger quakes. All of these measures combined help to ensure a safer country when disaster strikes.




http://www.volcanodiscovery.com/hellenic-arc.html
http://gogreece.about.com/od/newsmedia/a/earthquakes.htm
http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eventpage/us10003ywp#general_region
http://www.nat-hazards-earth-syst-sci.net/13/45/2013/nhess-13-45-2013.pdf