Earthquakes in Crimea: History and Current Seismic Activity

Crimea belongs to an earthquake-prone zone located on the territory of the Russian Federation. Seismic activity was repeatedly observed here, accompanied by the death of people, the disappearance of cities, and a change in the terrain. What is the reason for the incessant fluctuations in the underground, and what is the probability of future earthquakes, we will consider in this article.

The first records of earthquakes in Crimea that have survived to this day date back to prehistoric times. Since the 5th century BC e., in the descriptions of people's lives, as well as in the inscriptions found on the ruins of cities, it is periodically mentioned about catastrophes, natural disasters, flooding of the peninsula caused by the strongest vibrations of the earth's surface.

Russian naturalists P. Pallas and P. Sumarokov left behind personal observations of earthquakes in 1780 in Sevastopol, where the seismicity was 6 points. Each earthquake is devastation, death of people, anxiety, fear of an inexplicable phenomenon. Even the XX century did not bring peace and quiet to the described peninsula. With an accuracy of calendar months, you can list all the cataclysms that happened in this place at the beginning of the century. The earthquake statistics are as follows: January 1902, May 1908, October of the same year, December 1919.

The earthquakes of 1927 were the largest in terms of territory caused to material damage and human losses. There were 2 of them: the first - on June 26, the second - on the night of September 11-12. In June, as a result of earthquakes, rock falls near Sevastopol were noticed, and cracks formed on the walls of residential buildings. The post office, the temple collapsed, panic began, vacationers urgently left the resorts of the peninsula. The amount of damage was 1 million rubles.

The September 1927 earthquake is considered the strongest, the seismicity in points was 9 units. Pets were the first to show a state of anxiety: horses and cows tried to run somewhere, dogs and cats instinctively tried to be closer to their owners, waiting for help from them. There was an incessant hum for several hours at sea, waves boiled.

Exactly at midnight, a dog howling arose in the entire private sector, 15 minutes after midnight the earth trembled, there was a crash, crackling, broken glass, a few seconds later there was a second underground shock: half-naked people ran out of the crumbling housing, crying, crying for help. Experts say that in the first 11 hours there were 27 tremors of the earth's firmament. There were landslides in the mountains, the sea in a huge wave hit the shore, sweeping away everything in its path. Great destruction took place in Yalta: residential buildings were out of order, hotels "Yalta" and "Russia" were damaged.

Simferopol was badly destroyed. The total damage was estimated at 50 million rubles. Human casualties amounted to 800 wounded, 16 dead. The cause of death of people was not only the earthquake, but also the panic. Before the elements, people, fleeing, jumped out of the windows, fear drove them to a heartbreak.

In 1927, the Swallow's Nest restaurant was located on the steep forty-meter Aurora rock in the former castle. History brought to contemporaries information about the evening on the eve of the tragic events. The last visitors had just left the cozy hall when a powerful blow was heard.

As a result of a strong shock, a wide crack formed under the castle, part of the rock, together with the garden, collapsed into the sea, the rest hung over the abyss, there was a threat of collapse of the castle itself. The building received minor damage, but it was still closed to visitors.

Experts put forward several reasons for the occurrence of the Crimean earthquakes.

• In the Black Sea near Crimea the epicenter of earthquakes is located, it is located at a depth of 200-2000 meters, on the slope of the Black Sea depression. There, areas of the earth's crust come into contact, which make uneven, opposite movements, which causes earthquakes.
• On the line "Simferopol-Bakhchisarai" strong latitudinal faults occur. This leads to the movement of the seabed under the mountains, which becomes another reason for the vibrations of the earth's surface.
• Earthquakes are accompanied by tsunamis, which can be caused by active navigation off the coast of Crimea.

There were no eyewitnesses to the terrible tragedy of 1927, more than 90 years have passed since that terrible night, but the Crimean peninsula continues to remain an unsafe zone today. All subsequent tremors were insignificant and did not pose any seismic hazard. The last underground disturbance in Crimea was recorded on May 13, 2016, the tremors were weak, the Crimeans got off with only a slight fright. But you should not relax, according to experts, there is a possibility that an earthquake could occur at any moment. Quite a lot of time has passed since the time of the destructive element, and earthquakes are unpredictable and happen with less frequency.

Modern technologies allow scientists to observe the chemical and physical processes that took place in the earth's crust under the peninsula itself and in the depths of the Black Sea.They argue that tectonic movements take place, peat, silt, trees get into the fractures of the earth's crust, and they ferment at the depths of the sea, which triggers mud volcanoes.

Today, earthquakes occur on the territory of the peninsula, but their centers are many thousands of kilometers away from Crimea.

As in any controversial issue, opinions about future earthquakes are divided: some claim that it is inevitable, others do not doubt its absence.

Now, in the age of high technologies, at the Institute of Physics of the Earth (IPE) there is a laboratory of continental seismicity, which predicts seismic hazard. It is the specialists from this laboratory that provide information about a possible new earthquake.

Various options are suggested:

• houses will be destroyed;
• there will be a tsunami;

Rumors of a "coming cataclysm" appear against the background of the popularity of the Crimean holiday season.

The famous artist K. Petrov-Vodkin was vacationing in Crimea during the earthquake in September 1927, he stayed with his family in the midst of the destruction, tried to capture the elements of nature on the canvas. As a result of painstaking work, the creator presented the world with a masterpiece - the famous painting "Earthquake in Crimea". The natural disaster did not leave indifferent writers either. The earthquake shocks were reflected in their novel “12 chairs” by I. Ilf and E. Petrov.

The results of earthquake research in Crimea are shown in the following video.