On the recent seismic activity at eastern Aegean Sea: Analysis of fracture-induced electromagnetic emissions in terms of critical fluctuations

In this letter we show, in terms of fracture-induced electromagnetic emissions (EME) that the Earth system around the focal areas came to critical condition a few days before the occurrence of recent significant (M>5) earthquakes (EQs) which happened in the region of the eastern Aegean Sea, between the Greek Islands of Lesvos (6-7, 12 February 2017 and 12 June 2017) and Kos (20 July 2017) and the Turkish Asia Minor coastline. Moreover, departure from the critical state in terms of a tricritical crossover was identified in the EME recorded prior to the 12 June main event as well as prior to the 20 July main event. The analysis was performed by means of the method of critical fluctuations (MCF).