Two earthquakes
\nrocked for two consecutive days the south-western regions of Romania. The first
\nwith a magnitude of 5.2 on the Richter scale took place on Monday and had 16
\naftershocks. The second one, more powerful with a 5.7 magnitude took place at a
\ndepth of 7 kilometers and was also felt in other regions of Romania, including
\nin Bucharest. These two earthquakes came at a time when the death toll of those
\nthat hit Turkey and Syria last week is on the rise. Romania’s main seismic area
\nis Vrancea in south-east, so the latest earthquakes in the country’s south-west
\ncame as a surprise mainly to those studying the phenomenon. Here is the
\ndirector of the Institute for Earth Physics, Constantin Ionescu.<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
Constantin Ionescu:The area has rarely seen any earthquakes and
\nthose that happened there before were of low magnitudes, of 3, 2, 1 degrees.
\nAnd it came as a surprise to us the fact that the area became active again. A
\ncouple of earthquakes was reported in that area in the past but never with
\nmagnitudes over 4 degrees. From the geological point of view, the tectonic
\nplates moved vertically. Both of them shared the same mechanism, it was a
\ntandem, so to say. And the second one wasn’t an aftershock.<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
There were no
\nvictims but the first quake caused panic, which was probably fuelled by the
\nrecent Turkish-Syrian tragedy. The two earthquakes had effects in three
\ncounties in the country’s southwest though.<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
Here is now Raed
\nArafat, the head of Romania’s Department for Emergency Situations.<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
Raed Arafat: The
\neffects of these two earthquakes have been felt in six towns and villages in
\nthree counties, Gorj, Dolj and Mehedin\u0163i. Fifty emergency calls have been
\nregistered but people mainly called in about their cracked walls or to report some elements of masonry that had collapsed.
\nInitially there were rumors about a destroyed building, which eventually proved
\nfalse. Several panic attacks have also been reported by means of the 112
\nemergency number.<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
More serious issues
\nappeared in the Gorj county on the national road crossing the Jiu Gorges, which
\nwas blocked by fallen boulders and the intervention of road workers was needed.
\nIn T\u00e2rgu Jiu, capital of the Gorj county, the tremors caused damage to the
\nbuildings of the City Hall and the Prefect’s Office. They also caused
\ndisruptions in the electricity and gas supplies, which resumed shortly.<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
State secretary
\nArafat has drawn attention to the fact that panic can lead to a series of
\nmistakes during an earthquake and can even prove deadly. According to him
\npeople must train to get a better reaction in situations like these. An
\napplication, which can be accessed at the portal of the Emergency Situations
\nDepartment, comprises a series of recommendations on how to behave before,
\nduring and after an earthquake. <\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
(bill)<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Two earthquakes took place in a Romanian region where such phenomena are quite rare<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":110,"featured_media":94643,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[37738],"tags":[35548,40801,37384,37386,35914,29281,29159,30947],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-94642","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-today-in-the-news","tag-arafat","tag-buildings","tag-earthquakes","tag-gorj","tag-raed","tag-syria","tag-turkey","tag-vrancea"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n