Earthquake hits Azerbaijani region

/By AzerNews/

By Nigar Orujova

An earthquake hit Oghuz region in the northwest of Azerbaijan on September 29, the Republican Seismological Service Center of the Azerbaijan National Academy of Sciences reported.

Tremors were recorded at 08:06 local time in Oghuz, 23 km east of Sheki.

The magnitude 3.3 earthquake, with a focus at a depth of 23 km, generally went unnoticed by the public.

The region has experienced an earthquake in early September that was responsible for some damage to houses in the region. This particular earthquake also had a magnitude of 3.3 and a hypocenter of 20 km, however no tremors were felt.

Seismological Center to study the region

The head of the Seismological Center of Azerbaijan, Gurban Yetirmishli, recently announced that employees of the Center would study Sheki-Oghuz region in October.

He said this region is a seismically active area and that the center has additional instruments to study processes occurring in the center of earthquake that hit the region on September 4.

“We have further established four seismographs in this region. They will register even the smallest tremors that may occur in the future. At the same time, we are trying to explore all the processes occurring in the area, as we are preparing a report for the region,” said Yetirmishli.

Seismologists say minor earthquakes with small magnitudes occur in Azerbaijan on a daily basis. The most seismically active zones in Azerbaijan are the Shamakhi and Ismayilli regions.

Scientists believe that seismic zones with the potential to produce dangerous force cover the entire country, while the Alpine-Himalayan seismic belt passes directly through Azerbaijan.

Last year was marked with an intensification of seismic processes as well as the most powerful earthquakes that Azerbaijan has seen in the past 15 years.

Six earthquakes measuring over 5.0 on the Richter scale occurred in Azerbaijan in 2014, releasing a tremendous volume of energy.