Tourists are scared of an earthquake that occurred in Egypt, 27 km northeast of Hurghada. On the pages of the Egyptian media, Dr. Jad Al-Qadi, head of the National Institute for Astronomical Research, is trying to calm them down. According to him, although the northern region of the Red Sea has seismic activity, but 85% of earthquakes in it are not felt by people, because its strength is less than 3-3.5 points.
“Sometimes earthquakes are moderate, as happened today at dawn, with a magnitude of 4.5 on the Richter scale, and as a result they are felt by a number of citizens,” he added. According to him, the Red Sea is expanding by about 1 cm per year, which is associated with seismic activity, especially in its northern part. “As a result of communication between the earthquake monitoring center and the media, an interest in earthquake news has arisen among citizens,” the expert added. However, he warned tourists and locals against “spreading rumours”. According to him, Egypt is outside the seismic belt, despite the almost daily registration of seismic activity. Here, most of the tremors of the earth's crust are not only not dangerous, but are completely invisible.
OUR REFERENCE: the strength of earthquakes is expressed on the Richter scale, based on the assessment of the energy of seismic waves generated during tectonic shifts and causing the earthquake itself. The scale was developed by American seismologist Charles Richter in 1935. It is important that the scale uses a logarithmic scale, which means that each integer value on the scale indicates an earthquake ten times larger than the previous one. Thus, an earthquake with a magnitude of 5.0 on the Richter scale will cause 10 times more violent shaking of the earth's crust than an earthquake with a magnitude of 4.0. Therefore, earthquakes are conditionally divided into several groups according to their power and degree of destructiveness:
- 2.0 – the weakest shocks felt by a person;
- 4.5 – the weakest shocks, leading to small destruction;
- 6.0 – moderate destruction on the surface;
- 8.5 – the most strongest known earthquake.
Let's add that 9.1 points are the strongest known earthquakes, while scientists believe that earthquakes stronger than those with a magnitude of 9.5 cannot occur on Earth.
Recall that the interest (and fears) of tourists was activated by the earthquake that occurred in early February in Turkey. The magnitude of the earthquake was 7.7 points, which is a lot, and the “echo” of tremors was felt in more than 10 countries. An earthquake of magnitude 7.4 occurred at 04:17 in the Pazardzhik region of Kahramanmarash. It was followed almost immediately, at 04:26, by another 6.4 magnitude earthquake, the epicenter of which is located in the Nurdagi region of Gaziantep, near the Turkish-Syrian border. Aftershocks were felt throughout Turkey, right up to the resort provinces. Read the details at this link.
By the way, tourists frightened by the elements decided to change Turkey, including Egypt. This was reported by Atef Abdel Latif, a member of the South Sinai Tourism Investors Association. According to him, tourists were redirected by many travel companies, including German, Czech and Polish ones. The redirection began in February and continues. Read more here.
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