Earthquake - vibrations of the earth's surface, in some cases leading to destruction, earth faults, the formation of mountains and depressions. Very often they occur in areas located in close proximity to mountain ranges, active volcanoes. But sometimes tremors are felt in areas located far from the mountains. This natural phenomenon can be observed in any region of the Earth. What caused the earthquakes in Bashkiria, we will try to understand and answer this question.
Earthquake causes
Quite often earthquakes are recorded in Bashkiria, which sometimes amount to 4 points. But even two-point can be felt really. What can cause tremors? As scientists explain the occurrence of earthquakes in Bashkiria , echoes of powerful shocks in other parts of the Earth, large construction work or occurrence of karst strata in the area and many other reasons can contribute to this. During the construction of the Yumanguzinsky reservoir in 2011, significant tremors were noted.
An earthquake in Bashkiria was recorded in the winter of 2017, when residents of the Meleuzovsky district felt quite strong shocks. This happened on February 4 at 18.30 pm. As eyewitnesses describe, everything happened suddenly. The house shook. Chandeliers swayed, and the dishes rang, it was as if large layers of snow were falling from the roof. But they did not dump snow from the roof. As it turned out later, it was an earthquake. The Ministry of Emergency Situations explained this fact by echoes of four-point shocks in Altai.
Prior to 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-point earthquake occurred in the Far East. Scientists bind them together.
Man-made version
Scientists also do not exclude the causes of a number of tremors. So on the night of September 6, 2015, another earthquake was recorded in Bashkiria, it occurred in the Uchalinsky district. A one-time rather strong push was recorded. He was especially strong in the center. The area of the impact site was three square kilometers.
It is believed that the tremor was triggered by the Uchalinsky mining and processing plant, which is developing in deep quarries. The Ministry of Emergencies also supports the technogenic version, since it believes that a single push speaks about this, which does not happen with natural phenomena. You can also assume that there was a usual shift of the earth's crust, but this is not confirmed in any way.
On the territory of the Republic of Bashkiria there are a lot of natural resources, during the extraction of which deep development of the earth's surface is conducted. In addition, oil is produced here, with the result that voids are formed in the strata of the earth, so that versions of the technogenic origins of some tremors take place.
Ural mountains
The Ural Mountains pass through the territory of Bashkiria, and this, although 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. This can be confirmed by the earthquake of October 19, 2015, which affected not only Bashkiria, but the Sverdlovsk and Perm regions. Its epicenter was located at a distance of 165 kilometers from Yekaterinburg in the village of Shali, the magnitude of the shocks recorded by the Arti Observatory amounted to 4.2 points. According to the same observatory, the tremors continued for 2 minutes.
People in apartments and houses shook walls and windows. Seismic specialists at the USMU identified it as deep focus and weak. The earthquake in Bashkiria on October 19, 2015 showed that the Ural Mountains are still seismically active and that tremors of this kind are often felt by residents of several Ural regions.
What is an earthquake?
It is strange to hear that an earthquake occurred in Bashkiria, but this happens. They occur throughout the earth. In the past 30 years, scientists have proven that the earth's crust is moving. This is confirmed by oceanological, geophysical and geographical data obtained using modern instruments. Moreover, the movement in different parts of the earth can be different. There are two types of movement: fast - catastrophic; slow - age old.
By name you can guess that the most terrible and destructive are the first. An interesting fact: every five minutes on the planet Earth, one earthquake is recorded by seismological stations. With strong fluctuations, the powerful and short-duration force of sudden blows, which entails terrible destruction and many casualties, will be characteristic.
Scientists on Earth have identified a seismically active belt, it includes the mountain ranges of the Alps, the Caucasus, the Carpathians, the mountains of Central Asia, the Himalayas. Italy is located in such a belt, where they felt destructive shocks in 2016 on August 26. Earthquakes in Bashkiria on this day were not recorded.
Seismological situation in Bashkiria
Earthquakes are very rare in Bashkiria and pose no real threat. Seismic stations record mainly karst earthquakes that occur as a result of the collapse of underground voids. They are not dangerous.
Despite the fact that the seismically active belt is located far from Bashkortostan, its activity can be traced in the republic. True, they are usually of minor strength. 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 swayed and dishes rang.
Shocks were noted with a force of two points. They were characterized as echoes of the Tajik earthquake. But with powerful destructive earthquakes in Japan, an 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 karst rocks. They, as a rule, as a result of collapse create voids, which in the process of landslides cause the threat of an earthquake.
The region is saturated with dangerous enterprises, these include oil refining, chemical enterprises. Oil and gas pipelines run through the territory of Bashkortostan. People are increasingly interfering in nature: new reservoirs are being built; drill oil and gas deep wells, dig mines, huge giant quarries. This leads to the threat of destruction of the earth's crust, its movement.
The need for a seismological service
In this difficult situation, it is necessary to determine the most dangerous places, to monitor the seismic situation in the republic. The need to create a seismological service, forecasting critical situations using geomagnetic, exploration, geophysical and seismological studies is very urgent.
It is not worth hoping that the Urals is a rather seismologically quiet area. Everything in this world is relative. Calm today can become dangerous tomorrow. The most frequent in Bashkiria, as mentioned above, are earthquakes formed by landslides of karst rocks, artificial voids. It is necessary to create a single map, where all dangerous areas will be marked.