Earthquakes in Uzbekistan cause panic


Many Tashkent residents spent yesterday evening outdoors, in fearful expectation of a repeat of earthquakes that hit the city on 25 and 26 May.
 
When the excitement had almost abated the day after a strong earthquake hit Uzbekistan on the night of 24-25 May, another earthquake took place with its epicenter in Bulungur district of Samarkand Region at 11:08.
 
According to the US Geological Survey, it was a 6.0 magnitude earthquake. The Institute of Seismology of the Academy of Sciences of Uzbekistan reported its magnitude as 6.2 and the European Mediterranean Seismology Centre as 6.5. In Samarkand and Jizak, the magnitude of the earthquake reached 5.0; in Tashkent about 3.0.
 
The earthquake sparked off a spate of rumors regarding possible new tremors, which would cause unprecedented destruction.

For instance, on Sunday afternoon in the Askiya market rumors spread among sellers and buyers that another strong earthquake would hit the city at 20:00.

As a result, in the late afternoon, crowds of people could be seen sitting on benches in front of their apartment blocks.
 
According to a woman who lives in Tashkent’s Chilanzar district, who wished to remain anonymous, a hospital where one of her relatives works received a telephone message from the Emergency Situations Ministry about the need to increase readiness.
 
In the Lisunov residential area in the capital’s Hamza district, according to rumors, officers from the Emergency Situations Ministry visited apartments at about 16:00 to warn people about a strong earthquake that might take place within the next hour and asked everyone to remain outside.
 
As a result, frightened people crowded the yards of apartment blocks.
 
Meanwhile, in response to Uznews.net’s telephone inquiry, the Emergency Situations Ministry gave the assurance that this was “false information”.

 According to the website Uz24.uz, a number of social networks have rumors that the country's emergency rescue services are on high alert ready for a strong earthquake to hit Tashkent on 1 June.
 
Residents of Samarkand were also prepared for new earthquakes and many of them spent Sunday outdoors.
 
Similar rumors about future powerful earthquakes are not new in Uzbekistan - they arise each time there is a relatively strong earthquake.
 
This occurred in Tashkent after a 5-6 magnitude earthquake in August 2008. Another spate of rumors spread across Uzbekistan in July 2011 after a devastating tremor in the Fergana region.
 
These rumors do not have any scientific basis. Up until now, leading scientists in the USA, Germany, and Japan have remained unable to determine earthquakes in advance.
 
“This question is even more important for Japan, but earthquakes continue to occur, killing people and causing mass destruction, without anyone being able to predict them in advance,” an engineer from the Tashkent seismologic station, Dilorom Irgasheva, said.
 
Uznews.net
Тэги: Earthquakes in Uzbekistan

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