On Saturday 21st of March 2020, a M 5.6 earthquake hit north-west Greece.

According to the National Observatory's Geodynamic Institute, the quake was recorded at 2.49 a.m., with its epicenter located 14 kilometers northwest of Parga, at a depth of 10 kilometers. The tremor was felt in the wider region, particularly affecting the villages of Kanalaki, Glyki, Potamia, Kypseli, Skafidoti and Skoteino. It damaged dozens of older buildings, particularly in the nearby village of Kanalaki and three people sustained minor injuries.

BEYOND Center of Excellence immediately activated geObservatory (http://geobservatory.beyond-eocenter.eu/) that automatically produces multiple pre-seismic and co-seismic interferograms to map ground deformation associated with the EQ. We use Sentinel-1 data coming from the Hellenic Collaborative Mirror Site (http://sentinels.space.noa.gr).

Attached are the first co-seismic interferograms from descending and ascending orbits that were produced. They contains 1-2 deformation fringe in the Kanalaki region, which accounts to roughly 2.8 – 5.6 cm deformation in the satellite-earth line-of-sight. All co-seismic and pre-seismic interferograms are available to visualize and download by BEYOND geObservatory online application. We will keep on monitoring the evolution of the deformation and inform the community for any new insights.