In the last 100 years in BiH was registered more than 1,000 earthquakes with a magnitude greater than 3 degrees on the Richter scale, and every year in BiH has registered approximately 1,100 earthquakes with a magnitude less than 2.5 degrees on the Richter scale.
This is data from the Center for Seismology of the Federal Hydrometeorology Institute. Rusmir Gorusanin from the center said that BiH annually records 70 to 90 earthquakes, and in 2016 there were about 70 earthquakes from weak, moderate to strong ones.
He specified that western and eastern region in Herzegovina are very seismically active regions.
“The region between Tomislavgrad and Livno, then a part of the Adriatic coast, the border part with Croatia, are the most endangered area in BiH, and there are 70 to 80 % of earthquakes happening in the whole BiH,” said Gorusanin, stating that the continental part of BiH is less threatened.
He explained that the Balkan region is a part of the Mediterranean trans-Asian seismic belt and the cause of earthquakes in the Balkans is underscore of the African plate under the Eurasian underground massif.
Earthquakes cannot be predicted, stated Gorusanin, but appropriate statistical assessment can be made, and it is possible to calculate the probability of occurrence of an earthquake in a certain area, and in BiH, it is mostly western and eastern Herzegovina.
Talking about Sarajevo, he said that in the past year two earthquakes occurred near the capital of BiH, which were moderate.
“In 2012, we had a very strong earthquake of magnitude 4.7 degrees on the Richter scale in Zenica, in 2013 we had an earthquake of 4.1 degrees on the Richter scale in Tomislavgrad, in 2015 we had a pretty strong earthquake of 4.2 degrees on the Richter scale in Korani in Pale and in 2016 we had 4.4 degrees earthquake in Bileca. When it comes to 2014, we had a strong seismic activity, particularly in Gacko in Herzegovina, then in Livno, Bosansko Grahovo and Laktasi where the measured magnitude was 4.1 to 4.2 degrees on the Richter scale,” says Gorusanin.
Speaking of instructions for the population on how to behave in the case of an earthquake, he says that appropriate training can achieve that people do not panic and not to run into the stairwell because these are very sensitive places and most of the people get hurt there. Gorusanin noted that earthquakes occurring in BiH do not cause human casualties, they are not that strong.
“When it comes to Sarajevo, the anticipated maximum intensity is 7 degrees on Mercalli scale, there could be damaging of some buildings, break of tiles, but catastrophic earthquakes in Sarajevo are not foreseen,” he said.
(Source: Radiosarajevo.ba)
