Underground earthquake in Bashkortostan: statistics, assessments of eyewitnesses and experts

Earthquake - fluctuations of the earth's surface, in some cases leading to destruction, earth faults, mountains and depressions. Very often they occur in areas located in close proximity to mountain ranges, active volcanoes. But sometimes, earthquakes are felt in the territories located far from the mountains. This natural phenomenon can be observed in all regions of the Earth. What caused earthquakes in Bashkortostan, we will try to understand and answer this question.

Causes of earthquakes

In Bashkiria, quite often, non-strong earthquakes are recorded, which sometimes amount to 4 points. But even two-point ones can be felt realistically. What could be the cause of the tremors? As scientists explain the occurrence of earthquakes in the territory of Bashkiria, this can be facilitated by echoes of powerful tremors in other parts of the earth, large construction works or karst layers in the area and many other reasons. During the construction of the Yumanguzin Reservoir in 2011, significant tremors were noted.

The earthquake in Bashkiria was recorded in the winter of 2017, when residents of Meleuzovsky district felt quite strong tremors. This happened on February 4 at 6.30 pm. As eyewitnesses describe, everything happened suddenly. The house shook. The chandeliers swayed and the dishes rang, the feeling was as if large layers of snow fell from the roof. But the snow did not fall from the roof. As it turned out later, it was an earthquake. Specialists of the Ministry of Emergency Situations explained this fact with echoes of four-point shocks in the Altai.

Before this incident, an earthquake in Bashkiria was recorded in May 2013, when visitors to some buildings in Ufa were evacuated. At the same time, an eight-magnitude earthquake occurred in the Far East. Scientists associate them with each other.

Technogenic version

Do not exclude scientists and technogenic causes of a number of tremors. So on the night of September 6, 2015, another earthquake was recorded in Bashkiria, it happened in Uchalinsky district. A one-time rather strong push was recorded. He was especially strong in the center. The area of the site of its impact was equal to three square kilometers.

Presumably, it is believed that the earthquake was triggered by Uchalinsky Mining and Processing Plant, which is developing in deep quarries. The technogenic version is also supported by the Ministry of Emergency Situations, since it believes that a single impulse speaks about it, which is not the case with natural phenomena. Also, we can assume that there was a normal shift of the earth's crust, but this is not confirmed.

On the territory of the Republic of Bashkiria there are a lot of natural resources, the extraction of which is the deep development of the earth's surface. In addition, oil is extracted here, with which voids are formed in the seams of the earth, so that the versions of technogenic origins of some earthquakes occur.

The Ural Mountains

The territory of Bashkiria is the Ural Mountains, and this is not a young but active structure. The Ural Mountains lie at the junction of two platforms: the East European and West Siberian. This situation can cause stress, friction. Confirmation of this can serve as an earthquake on October 19, 2015, which affected not only Bashkiria, but Sverdlovsk and Perm regions. The epicenter was located at a distance of 165 kilometers from Yekaterinburg in Shali settlement, the magnitude of the tremors registered by the "Arti" observatory was up to 4.2 points. According to the same observatory, the tremors continued for 2 minutes.

People in the apartments and houses shook the walls and windows. Specialists in seismic exploration of the USMU have identified it as deep focus and weak. The earthquake in Bashkiria on October 19, 2015 showed that the Ural Mountains are still seismoactive and such kind of earthquakes are often felt by residents of several Ural regions.

What is an earthquake?

It's strange to hear that an earthquake occurred in Bashkiria, but it happens. They occur all over the Earth. In the last 30 years, scientists have proven that the earth's crust is moving. This is confirmed by oceanological, geophysical and geographical data obtained with the help of modern instruments. And the movement in different parts of the earth can be different. There are two types of movement: rapid - catastrophic; Slow - the age-old.

By name you can guess that the most terrible and destructive are the first. An interesting fact: every five minutes on earth earthquakes are recorded by seismological stations. With strong fluctuations, a powerful and short-lasting force of sudden strikes will be characteristic, entailing terrible destruction and many human casualties.

Scientists on Earth have seismically active belt, it includes mountain ranges of the Alps, the Caucasus, the Carpathians, the mountains of Central Asia, the Himalayas. In this belt is located Italy, where they felt the destructive tremors in 2016 on August 26. Earthquakes in Bashkortostan did not register this day.

Seismological situation in Bashkortostan

In Bashkiria earthquakes are very rare and do not represent a real threat. Seismic stations register mainly karst earthquakes, which occur as a result of the collapse of underground cavities. They are not a danger.

Despite the fact that the seismically active belt is far from Bashkortostan, its activity can be traced in the republic. True, they tend to have little power. For example, an earthquake was recorded in Bashkiria in December 2000. It was felt by the inhabitants of Ufa. On October Avenue, residents of several houses went out into the street, in which chandeliers and dishes rang.

There were marked tremors by force in two points. They were characterized as echoes of the Tajik earthquake. But with powerful underground destructive shocks in Japan, the earthquake in Bashkiria on July 16, 2007 was not observed.

Geological structure

The territory of the Republic has a rather complex geological structure. One third of it consists of karstic rocks. As a rule, as a result of the collapse, they create voids, which in the process of collapse threaten the earthquake.

The region is full of dangerous enterprises, including oil refining, chemical enterprises. On the territory of Bashkortostan oil and gas pipelines run. People are increasingly involved in nature: new reservoirs are being built; Drilling oil and gas deep wells, digging mines, huge gigantic quarries. This leads to the threat of destruction of the earth's crust, its progress.

The need to create a seismological service

In this difficult situation, it is necessary to identify the most dangerous places, to monitor the seismic situation in the republic. The need to create a seismological service, forecasting critical situations using geomagnetic, geological, geophysical and seismological studies, is very urgent.

It is not necessary to hope that the Urals is a relatively calm region in the seismological sense. Everything in this world is relative. Calm today can become dangerous tomorrow. The most frequent in Bashkiria, as indicated above, are earthquakes, formed by avalanches of karst rocks, artificial emptiness. It is necessary to create a single map, where all dangerous areas will be marked.