Croatian Earthquake

seenitall

Croatian capital, Zagreb, has today been struck by an Earthquake of 5.3 Richter scale at 6:23 AM local time. The epicentre was about 9 km northeast of Zagreb.

An aftershock at around 5.1 Richter followed around an hour later.

There have been no casualties registered as yet, one person is critical in the ICU. This is due to the fact that that it was early morning and no one in the streets, also partially due to the general public movement restrictions due to the outbreak of COVID-19.

The public was this morning being urged to get out of their homes, but stay 2 metres apart.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=VbPjXELev1Y

Guy:Incognito

Does that region often get quakes? Not somewhere that would spring to mind when you think of earthquakes.

seenitall

Guy:Incognito wrote: »

Does that region often get quakes? Not somewhere that would spring to mind when you think of earthquakes.

Nope, not often at all - but only from the point of view of a human lifespan. So, very often, in fact, in the general geological terms. Last great earthquake there was in 1880, it was stronger than this one. It is an area with a bit of seismical activity.

The people are quite resilient, but it does seem like a bad joke at this stage. The public movement had been restricted because of COVID-19, and now no one is to go in or out of the city because of it, meanwhile there have been more than 50 aftershocks all throughout the last 24 hours, the stronger ones around 3 Richter. People want to get out of the city as the seismologists are basically saying that one of these aftershocks could be a bigger one as well (although that is very unlikely, but possible), however they are not allowed to any longer.

A lot of the old buildings in the city's centre are badly damaged, including some hospitals, where in case of one, newborn babies and mothers had to be evacuated. Some people lost their homes because of too much structural damage, they have been accommodated in student accommodation. There is a fear of parts of damaged buildings falling off again and onto whoever is in the street now, so there have been some controlled roof demolitions carried out.

The nuclear plant Krsko, over the border in Slovenia, has reported no irregularities in function, and the public has been assured that it was designed to withstand an event of up to 8 Richter (I think it was 8 or 9, don't remember which now).

TheRepentent

For some stupid reason I only thought earthquakes last for a few seconds...The video below is from an airport on the coast in Japan....half the 7 minute video is an earthquake...the 2nd half is the resulting tsunami flooding the runways...scarey stuff

seenitall

God that's terrifying. That's the one that resulted in the Fukushima event, right?

I've just checked the magnitude for that one, and it was 9 Richter, lasting, as can be seen in that clip, 6 minutes approx.

Six. Minutes.

The Croatian one lasted 10 seconds, was 'only' a 5.3 Richter, and people are saying that it seemed like an absolute eternity.

Zagreb:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=XGp4ZZ-AGA8

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=GTvtQExtuXA

^The second clip above is of the same 10 secs over and over from various CCTV cameras around the Faculty of Medicine and the adjacent hospital. It's not very exciting, although note how stray/hospital-fed cats go crazy at 1:21, just BEFORE the 10 seconds. That aspect of earthquakes is fascinating.

Ten of Swords

Guy:Incognito wrote: »

Does that region often get quakes? Not somewhere that would spring to mind when you think of earthquakes.

Further south in the Balkans there have been a number of serious earthquakes, the worst earthquake of 2019 was in Albania last November. 40 years prior to that the most powerful earthquake to hit the region caused enormous damage in what is now Montenegro. In the northern regions, where Zagreb is, seismic events would be less common, certainly less severe.

TheRepentent

seenitall wrote: »

God that's terrifying. That's the one that resulted in the Fukushima event, right?

Yep....we're very lucky to live where we are....we can only give out about the weather

No dangerous animals , no extreme weather events and no earthquakes :P

imagine if Dublin got hit with the same strength as Zagreb !

seenitall

TheRepentent wrote: »

Yep....we're very lucky to live where we are....we can only give out about the weather

No dangerous animals , no extreme weather events and no earthquakes :P

imagine if Dublin got hit with the same strength as Zagreb !

Yes, it's not called the luck o' the Irish for nothing!

Whichever places will be dealing with earthquakes or any extreme weather events now, on top of COVID... poor sods. I'm sure there'd be as much incredulity and frustration about it in Dublin as anywhere.

The Balkans had the wars about 25 years ago, the current crop of the governments there are people who were young students then, and would have some experience of hardship and measures to be taken quickly in difficult times. That helps a bit.

ShatterAlan

seenitall wrote: »

Nope, not often at all - but only from the point of view of a human lifespan. So, very often, in fact, in the general geological terms. Last great earthquake there was in 1880, it was stronger than this one. It is an area with a bit of seismical activity.

The people are quite resilient, but it does seem like a bad joke at this stage. The public movement had been restricted because of COVID-19, and now no one is to go in or out of the city because of it, meanwhile there have been more than 50 aftershocks all throughout the last 24 hours, the stronger ones around 3 Richter. People want to get out of the city as the seismologists are basically saying that one of these aftershocks could be a bigger one as well (although that is very unlikely, but possible), however they are not allowed to any longer.

A lot of the old buildings in the city's centre are badly damaged, including some hospitals, where in case of one, newborn babies and mothers had to be evacuated. Some people lost their homes because of too much structural damage, they have been accommodated in student accommodation. There is a fear of parts of damaged buildings falling off again and onto whoever is in the street now, so there have been some controlled roof demolitions carried out.

The nuclear plant Krsko, over the border in Slovenia, has reported no irregularities in function, and the public has been assured that it was designed to withstand an event of up to 8 Richter (I think it was 8 or 9, don't remember which now).

They are not a regular occurence, per se, but the Southern European / Med does get them. I was on holiday in Crete in the early 2000's with the girlfriend. and a 5.2 hit. I slpet through it because I was wankered but it knocked lamps and nightstand over in the bedroom (according to her ladyship).


Next day I went down to the pool bar for a bloody mary and was asked about the night's event's by the barman. Hadn't a clue what he was talking about.




I've also slept through a house fire though.




There would be tectonic plates separating Europe from Africa which I'm guessing crunch from time to time.

paul71

Guy:Incognito wrote: »

Does that region often get quakes? Not somewhere that would spring to mind when you think of earthquakes.

Yes, the entire eastern Med is an Earthquake Zone from Italy to Syria, the have been massive some massive quakes with huge loss of life there in the last 50 years. There are also a couple of Active volcanoes.

paul71

seenitall wrote: »

Nope, not often at all - but only from the point of view of a human lifespan. So, very often, in fact, in the general geological terms. Last great earthquake there was in 1880, it was stronger than this one. It is an area with a bit of seismical activity.

The people are quite resilient, but it does seem like a bad joke at this stage. The public movement had been restricted because of COVID-19, and now no one is to go in or out of the city because of it, meanwhile there have been more than 50 aftershocks all throughout the last 24 hours, the stronger ones around 3 Richter. People want to get out of the city as the seismologists are basically saying that one of these aftershocks could be a bigger one as well (although that is very unlikely, but possible), however they are not allowed to any longer.

A lot of the old buildings in the city's centre are badly damaged, including some hospitals, where in case of one, newborn babies and mothers had to be evacuated. Some people lost their homes because of too much structural damage, they have been accommodated in student accommodation. There is a fear of parts of damaged buildings falling off again and onto whoever is in the street now, so there have been some controlled roof demolitions carried out.

The nuclear plant Krsko, over the border in Slovenia, has reported no irregularities in function, and the public has been assured that it was designed to withstand an event of up to 8 Richter (I think it was 8 or 9, don't remember which now).

Skopje 1963, Montenegro 1979, Amatrice 2016.

riffmongous

The Albania earthquake at the end of last year killed 51

seenitall

paul71 wrote: »

Skopje 1963, Montenegro 1979, Amatrice 2016.

Also, Banja Luka (in today's Bosnia) 1969.

I was referring to 'that region' from another poster's question, as in - Croatia, which is somewhat smaller in size than Ireland (but not a lot). 1880 is the year of the last big event in the region of northwest Croatia.

Sure, taking a wider view, eastern Med area is vulnerable. Turkish disaster of 1999 sticks out in my mind. Tens of thousands of lives gone in 35 seconds. Still remember that in the news.

ETA: Although the above Turkish area wasn't strictly Med, I believe. Not entirely sure. I think it's on the Black Sea.

paul71

Croatia is probably a little further north than the normal area for quakes but the fault line runs from Central Italy as far as Iraq, as so a couple of hundred kilometers is not that much.

OldGoat

TheRepentent wrote: »

Yep....we're very lucky to live where we are....we can only give out about the weather

No dangerous animals , no extreme weather events and no earthquakes :P

imagine if Dublin got hit with the same strength as Zagreb !

There are plenty of quakes here.
https://www.insn.ie/
Live sismograms too if you wanna live on the edge.