An earthquake was recorded in Latvia – nra.lv

After 11 Toms Bricis received a message from Kurzeme that something similar to an earthquake was noticeable on the Liepāja side.

Toms Bricis writes on the microblogging site “X”: “The seismological station in Slītere recorded ground vibrations, however, the seismologist assesses it as a very local event, because the stations of neighboring countries did not record this event so clearly”

In Latvia, seismological monitoring is carried out at one observation station – Slīteres – however observations are also compared at stations located around Latvia in Estonia, Lithuania, Finland, Poland and Denmark.

The specific event was clearly recorded only at one – Slītere – observation station. More precise information about the location of the event can be provided to LVĜMC after an in-depth data analysis.

The center points out that it is now clear that the earthquake, if there was one, is of a local scale, as signs of it can be observed only at one observation station. Therefore, the expected magnitude of the event is most likely below 3, which means that no damage to buildings or infrastructure related to the earthquake would be observed.

Ground movements observed in Latvia are usually small-scale, related to human activity, for example, military exercises. The last natural earthquake in the Baltic region was recorded in 2022 in the north of Estonia with a magnitude of 2.3. Natural earthquakes in the region rarely exceed magnitude 3.

Seismological monitoring data is collected continuously, while data processing and interpretation is a manual process.

LVĜMC invites those who felt the vibrations to fill out the questionnaire and send it to “[email protected]”