The number of seismic stations will be increased in Crimea. Why and to what?

In the afternoon of February 2 a strong earthquake occurred in Crimea. His the epicenter was in the Sea of ​​Azov. According to the Eurasian Seismic Center, its magnitude was 4.8. Tremors recorded at a depth of 10 km, at a distance of 78 kilometers from Kerch and 25 km from Shchelkino. In the evening of the same day I registered aftershock.

This earthquake is not classified as normal, Wolfman said.

For Crimea, this earthquake is quite strong. Rare earthquakes of such magnitude. If we take post-war observations, then there were 15–20 of these, no morehe said.

As monitoring showed, the tremors that occurred were felt not only in Eastern Crimea — Kerch, Sudak and Feodosia — but also in Simferopol and Sevastopol, “they even called from Berdyansk” (Zaporozhye region — ed.), Wolfman said.

The expert emphasized that Crimea is located on the outskirts of the Alpine-Himalayan (Mediterranean) seismic belt and is a seismically active region where strong earthquakes are actually possible.

Our plain Crimea is the articulation of an ancient platform and a certain damper: we dampen the stresses that remain after they are realized in Turkey. And this happens in the form of earthquakes, which are truly catastrophic — 1927 is an example of thisWolfman said.

Despite the fact that “something serious is possible in Crimea,” as a rule, earthquakes here are frequent, but weak and safe, the scientist said. And they can be felt by residents only in cases where the outbreak is located quite close to the shore, several tens of kilometers from the coast, he clarified.

For example, last year A series of earthquakes occurred in the Wuchang-Su area15 events. They were quite weak, but since they were located directly near a populated area, the residents felt it and this caused alarmhe noted.

All earthquakes are very different — both their nature and kinematics are different — so predicting them long before a seismic event is unlikely, and “until now science has not advanced in this direction,” Wolfman said.

However, a medium-term forecast is possible in some cases, in particular in Crimea, but there is still little statistical material for this, he added.

Although the Crimean monitoring system has its problems, the formation of the network, which the Institute of Earth Physics is preparing to install in Crimea this year, has nothing to do with the expected earthquakes and the strengthening of the monitoring system, the scientist emphasized.

Let’s dot all the i’s, because there were rumors, let’s say, not entirely substantiated… This is not connected with any expectations of increased seismic intensity in Crimea. This time. Second, this is not intended to strengthen the Crimean monitoring networkWolfman said.

According to Wolfman, we are talking about installing seismic stations to conduct fundamental research and solve a scientific problem.

We discussed this problem with the leader of this work, an employee of the Institute of Earth Physics, Yuri Leonidovich Rebetsky. They want to locate 5-7 stations in the area of ​​the main seismogenic zone. This is approximately on the coast from Alushta, Gurzuf in the east and to, perhaps, Mukhalatka (Yalta, southern coast of Crimea). This is a temporary observing systemsaid Wolfman.

According to him, scientists from this institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences are now actively studying systems of small earthquakes in order to try to quantify the stress existing in the earth’s crust.

They tested (such an observation system — ed.) in seismically active regions. And this, generally speaking, is fundamental research, which, if it obtains significant results, will bring us closer to understanding the process of seismogenesis itself — the occurrence of earthquakes and, perhaps, will provide some kind of key in the future to predicting earthquakesexplained the scientist.

source: RIA Novosti Crimea