#ARCTIC. #SIBERIA. THIS IS TAIMYR. On March 2, an earthquake was reported nearly 300 kilometers from Hatanga by the online portal Volcanodiscovery, which tracks current seismic activity worldwide.
The report stated that the earthquake struck at 6:54 AM local time, 283 kilometers from the village of Hatanga. The Telegram channel Our Taimyr added that it had a shallow depth of about ten kilometers and went unnoticed by local residents.
According to the Krasnoyarskmedia portal, tremors were recorded in the villages of Yessey (Evenkia), Kayak (Taimyr Dolgano-Nenets district), as well as in the Taimyr settlements of Novaya, Katyryk, Kresty, Hatanga, Heta, Zhdaniha, Stary Popigay, and Chirinada in the Evenki district. The intensity of the earthquake ranged from two to three on the Richter scale.
“This isn’t much”, noted Evgeny Golubev, rector of the Polar State University and a candidate of geographical sciences, in an interview with the Severny Gorod television channel.
A two-point earthquake is barely perceptible to people, while a three-point quake can cause slight movement of hanging objects.
“In our region, we don’t have active volcanic processes, so we shouldn’t expect large earthquakes, generally stronger than five or six on the scale”, Golubev explained. “However, we must acknowledge that small earthquakes occur continuously around the world”.
The Polar State University website has recently published findings from an analysis of seismic activity recorded 650 kilometers from Norilsk.
“On March 2, the Volcanodiscovery portal detected an earthquake in the Kotuy river valley between the Putorana and Anabar plateaus, with a magnitude of 5.1 on the Richter scale. Interestingly, seismic activity in this area is extremely rare and atypical”.
According to Golubev, in this seismically stable region, earthquakes are likely related to the movement of individual blocks of rock.
“Blocks measuring tens of kilometers are constantly sinking, rising, and shifting horizontally by small amounts. Research indicates that sometimes the activation of such processes is linked to the wetting of fractures due to oil extraction or other natural processes”, he explained.
Mikhail Yelesin, the Construction and Heating and Gas Supply department’s head, commented:
“The southern part of the Taimyr Peninsula is situated on the Siberian platform, which is considered relatively stable. However, near the Norilsk industrial area, there are tectonic fault zones that can cause minor seismic activity. Our region experiences weak vibrations of up to four points, which often go unnoticed by residents. While tremors exceeding five points are theoretically possible, they are extremely rare”.
Interestingly, this year a similar earthquake occurred in the waters of the Laptev sea, also at a depth of ten kilometers. According to the European-Mediterranean Seismological Centre, those tremors had a magnitude of 5.2, with the epicenter located 197 kilometers from the village of Tiksi.
Follow us on Telegram, VKontakte.
Text: Larisa Fedishina, Photo: Nornickel PB’s press service
