An earthquake with magnitude 5.2 occurred on Wednesday 16 August 2023 in the Caspian Sea at 06:37 local time, 31 km from Turkmenbashi (Turkmenistan).
According to Earthquakelist, the quake struck at a depth of 45 km. "While this was a shallow earthquake, it appears to have occurred under land with a magnitude not strong enough to cause tsunami's".
This is the strongest earthquake in the region to hit since October 26th, 2016, when a 5.4 magnitude earthquake hit 148 km further south-east. An even stronger magnitude 5.5 earthquake struck on June 7th, 2014.
In total, 2 earthquakes with a magnitude of 5.2 or higher have been registered within 300km of this epicenter in the past 10 years. This comes down to an average of once every 5 years.
The city of Turkmenbashi is home to an international port, the country's largest oil refinery and the new seaside resort of Avaza.
Turkmenistan is in a seismically dangerous zone. Studies show that the Balkhan-Caspian region and the Kopetdag mountain system, which separates Turkmenistan and Iran, have high seismicity, which is confirmed, in particular, by destructive earthquakes: Uzun-Adin (Krasnovodsk) in 1895, Germab in 1929, Kazanjik in 1946, Balkhan in 2000.
On the night of 6 October 1948, one of the most destructive earthquakes of the XX century occurred in Ashgabat.
Credits: Eziz Boyarov
Comments (0)