As of: March 24, 2024, 2:50 p.m
By: Johannes Welte
Comments
Press
Split
A series of four tremors shook Croatia's northern Adriatic coast on Sunday morning (March 24).
Geologists have a startling explanation for the earthquakes.
Rijeka - Croatia's Adriatic coast is a holiday dream for millions of holidaymakers who want to swim there in crystal clear water every year.
But the entire Balkan Peninsula is a highly tectonically active area, which is why earthquakes occur again and again.
On Sunday morning, the earth shook four times on the country's northern coast.
Under the hills of an idyllic holiday resort in Croatia, the ground suddenly shook
At 10:21 a.m. there was the first shock in the hills behind the resort of Crikvenica, about 25 kilometers south of Rijeka.
According to initial information from the European Mediterranean Earthquake Observatory EMSC, the earthquake had a magnitude of 4.0 on the Richter scale.
The magnitude was later corrected to 3.4.
The epicenter of the earthquake was at a depth of 5.3 kilometers.
Four earthquakes occurred within a few minutes on the Croatian Adriatic coast © Earthquake Network
In the first ten minutes, according to vecernji.hr
, over a hundred citizens contacted
the EMSC app and reported the tremor: “A rumbling was heard and it was shaking,” it says.
“A loud explosion followed by a tremor,” said another user.
“Ugh, it was shaking really bad,” said the next.
“Two loud bangs, you felt a vibration.
No broken things or other damage,” “Short but intense,” write other citizens.
"A loud explosion followed by a tremor"
In fact, the official definition for quakes between magnitudes 3 and 4 is: “Often felt, but damage is very rare.”
Still, in just an hour and 20 minutes after the earthquake, 330 comments poured in.
“It started slowly, then became more intense and lasted about 6-7 seconds.
The walls shook violently,” says another comment.
Two seconds before the quake near Crikvenica, the ground was already shaking 20 kilometers further north on the Croatian-Slovenian border near Brod an der Kupa, the magnitude here was 3.3.
At 10:43 a magnitude 3 earthquake occurred again on the Croatian coast about 30 kilometers southwest of Crikveninca near Senj. Three seconds later there was another magnitude 2.5 earthquake, another 20 kilometers south in the Velebit National Park Croatian coastal mountains on the Kvarner Gulf.
There was also an earthquake off the Greek island of Corfu on Friday morning.
Four earthquakes occurred within a few minutes on the Croatian Adriatic coast.
The most violent earthquake in the series occurred near the port town of Crikvenica.
© via imago-images.de/Earthquake Network
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Tectonic movements are pushed across continents
Just in February, a magnitude 4 shock shook the Adriatic Sea between the coasts of Croatia and Italy.
Earthquakes also caused unrest in the Alps.
According to geologists, both the quakes in the Alps and on the Adriatic coast are due to the Adriatic microcontinental plate rotating counterclockwise under the much larger Eurasian continental plate.
The Alps and the mountains of the Balkans are folded.
The Adriatic plate, in turn, is pushed by the African plate.
This movement in turn tugs on the Italian peninsula, which also triggers earthquakes there.