The Greek island of Santorini has been reportedly been hit by hundreds of tremors this year, while a 5.2-magnitude strong quake hit earlier this month.
The island and the nearby Aegean Sea islands have reportedly seen their tourism suffer amid the quakes.
"In the past two days, we have seen a drop in bookings, but we hope this will be short-lived," Antonis Pagonis, president of Greece's Association of Hoteliers, told the BBC.
He added that cruises have been turned away and that staff have been unable to get to the island.
Emily Hooft, a geophysicist at the University of Oregon, told K News: “We’re seeing deep magma shifts, but not necessarily leading to an eruption. The earthquakes that come with this movement are relieving pressure beneath Santorini, which might actually reduce the likelihood of immediate volcanic activity."
The event follows an earthquake measuring 4.7 on the Richter scale that rocked Lisbon and surrounding areas on Monday.
At a depth of roughly 10km, its impact could be felt across swathes of the affected Portuguese region as residents flocked to social media site X to describe the tremors and the moment they felt buildings shake.
One person wrote: “A pretty substantial tremor just hit #Lisbon Lasted a few seconds. Everything shook.”
The earthquake hit when head Portuguese football coach Bruno Lage was about to speak at a conference before Benfica’s Champions League play-off. Before he took to his chair, the whole room started to shake, according to footage by CNN Portugal.
It comes after a period of seismic activity rattled the Greek island of Santorini, which has registered more than 12,800 earthquakes since January 26.
In light of these occurrences, what are Europe’s earthquake hotspots, and are any of them favourite travel destinations?
Earthquake risk
Earthquake risk can be determined, according to European Facilities for Earthquake Hazard and Risk (EFEHR), by multiple factors. These include estimated ground shaking impact, population, soil conditions and vulnerability that considers loss of life and economic loss.
High earthquake risk
Examples of places with high seismic risks are mostly in urban areas, according to EFEHR and include the following cities:
Iceland is also known as an earthquake hotspot, and some sources say the country can see 500 a week. However, its relatively low population and construction characteristics means earthquake risk is limited, and many tremors are barely even noticeable compared to in other European countries. Exceptions, though, can include the capital Reykjavik and surrounding towns.
It is thought that, due to earthquakes, the four countries listed make up nearly 80 per cent of the modelled average economic loss each year, which amounts to a staggering 7 billion Euros (£5.816bn), according to EFEHR.
But earthquakes in some of these regions have also cost thousands of lives, including in Turkey, where a catastrophic tremor back in 2023 led to the death of tens of thousands of people.
