Tremors In St. Petersburg

Video: Tremors In St. Petersburg

Video: Tremors In St. Petersburg
Video: Winter Saint Petersburg Russia 6K. Shot on Zenmuse X7 Drone// Зимний Петербург, аэросъёмка 2024, March
Tremors In St. Petersburg
Tremors In St. Petersburg
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Readers of the city portal "Fontanka.ru" for several days bombarded the editorial mail with messages about the tremors that they feel in the north of St. Petersburg.

At first, the information seemed similar to the consequence of an early spring exacerbation, but when the number of letters went into the second dozen, it became clear that the situation was much more serious. Going in search of an earthquake in an earthquake-resistant region, the correspondent came across testing of the latest weapons and the destruction of ammunition, but the truth was never found.

The first reports of incomprehensible aftershocks began to arrive at the end of last week. Late in the evening of February 24, a resident of St. Petersburg, Roman, told that on the outskirts of St. Petersburg - in Devyatkino and Murino - he and his neighbors had to experience unpleasant sensations. “From 20:30 to 22:46 it swayed at least four times,” the letter said. Considering that not long before that another reader had informed Fontanka that a UFO had landed in the Yuntolovsky reserve, we did not pay special attention to Roman's message.

But the next evening, another reader, Evgenia, reported about a similar phenomenon (not of a ufological nature). At 21:55 she wrote: “About an hour ago, residents of Demyan Bedny Street were agitated by incomprehensible shocks that shook the house so that things were flying out of the closets. The shocks were repeated several times. At the same time, an incomprehensible rumble was heard on Prosveshcheniya Avenue. The crash was like the sound of an explosion and was repeated several times. Emotionally, but somehow I can't really believe it, we brushed it off.

Then letters of similar content began to arrive with an alarming consistency. Moreover, it was mainly about the inhabitants of the northern regions of St. Petersburg. When the number of messages began to approach the third ten, Fontanka decided to investigate the situation. Along with the facts, our readers shared their assumptions about what could have caused the tremors. Discarding the version about extraterrestrial civilizations, we chose two more realistic hypotheses: an earthquake and the destruction of ammunition at the test site.

Sergey Kashubin, Director of the Center for Deep Geophysics of the FSUE All-Russian Geological Research Institute noted in a conversation with a reporter that both could have happened equally in St. Petersburg. According to the specialist, due to the fact that our area is not classified as earthquake-prone, there is no special service in the city that would monitor the situation and have an observation seismological network. But this does not mean that tremors are impossible in the region.

“In fact, there is weak seismicity - it is both in Scandinavia and on the territory of the Baltic Shield, that is, in the vicinity of our city,” says Kashubin. “These are weak seismic events, which are not perceptible against the background of city noise and traffic, but can be felt in a calm, quiet environment, but the epicenter can be tens or hundreds of kilometers away from us.”

Moreover, the nature of the phenomena that the readers of "Fontanka" talk about can be explained by the detonation of shells.

“An explosion in a military unit can be felt in a region quite remote,” the geophysicist believes. - That is, the sound wave may not be felt, but tremors are quite possible. It depends on the zones of the geological structure, for some of them elastic vibrations are transmitted, weakly damping, and therefore people or equipment located in this zone record events that are quite distant. Sometimes it is tens of kilometers, hundreds of kilometers from the place where, in fact, the explosion itself took place."

In the Western Military District "Fontanka" was informed that they had heard about the fears of Petersburgers, and the information was verified.

“The destruction of ammunition at the district's landfills is carried out during daylight hours, on weekends, the destruction of ammunition is not carried out, - said Press Secretary of the Commander of the Western Military District Andrey Bobrun … - On Saturday, according to the plan, the places are cleaned from the products of destruction. Sunday is a day off. Since the readers reported that the tremors were heard after 21:00, and, according to geophysicist Sergei Kashubin, the time interval between these two events (explosion and shock) cannot be several hours, it means that the destruction of ammunition is not associated with the described phenomena … At least such a conclusion suggested itself before the conversation with the employee of the Main Pulkovo Astronomical Observatory.

As it turned out in a conversation with Bella Assinovskaya, Head of the Seismology Seismology of the LRG, GAO RASIndeed, on February 25, 2011, 17 aftershocks were recorded 40 kilometers from the Pulkovo seismic station in the region of 20-21 hours. Presumably, the epicenter could be on the side of the Karelian Isthmus. This is either the northern side of the city, or further to the region of Pargolovo and Rzhevka. In order for the information to be more accurate, it is necessary to have three seismic stations, and not one - as it is now. However, the authorities are deaf to the perennial requests of specialists.

For the same reason, seismologists for a long time could not determine the nature of the phenomenon described by the readers. At the same time, they unambiguously dismissed the version of the earthquake, noting that these could be events of the so-called frosty character … That is, due to the sharp changes in day and night temperatures, the earth's crust moves.

"Even if these are explosions, they were felt in the city, because the environment is very humid, usually they are not felt, but since this year we have such an abnormal situation, residents feel," Bella Assinovskaya said, adding that for several days it will become known exactly how the military is involved in this.

By 18 o'clock the head of the seismology sector received new information. With reference to the Emergencies Ministry, Bella Assinovskaya categorically stated that the cause of the tremors is the destruction of ammunition.

At the center of crisis management "Fontanka" was also informed that the actions at the military training ground became the cause of the alarm of the townspeople. As Assinovskaya suggested, these could be actions at the Rzhevsky test site, which is located in the area of the alleged epicenter. However, according to Fontanka, on the 25th, although weapons were tested there, they were not connected with the detonation. So, it is more plausible - the events at the Bobochinsky training ground located a little further. But there, the destruction of ammunition, as well as tests at the Rzhev test site, were carried out, according to the ZVO, during daylight hours. In order to finally know the truth, which, of course, is somewhere nearby, I had to again turn to the district for help. They took the information into account and promised, having figured it out, to report the results.

PS: As of 11:20 pm, the editorial office continues to receive letters of tremors. One is more disturbing than the other. The spelling and punctuation of the authors are preserved. “Today there were 4 strong shocks in a row: at 19:58 (2), 19:59, 20:02, the shocks were accompanied by the sounds of explosions from the direction of Vsevolozhsk (according to sensations)," Roman informs the reader again. “Explosions are heard in Fox Nose. Yes, such that the glass clinks …”- Andrey echoes him. “At about 20.00 in the Krasnoselsky district on the Peterhof highway, tremors of unknown origin were noted,” Vitaly reports.“At the end of Korolev Avenue, from the northwestern side of the city, the sounds of explosions can be heard for several days,” Yevgeny writes. - House at st. Shavrova, 23, apparently located in front of the blast wave (at the corner of Korolev and Shavrova St.), literally sways every time and almost simultaneously with the sound of the explosion. It is very unpleasant to be on the upper floors of a ten-story building. I could suspect myself of signs of mental illness or intoxication, but several people confirm these feelings. What can be exploded like that and how powerful are these explosions ?! Can we hope that the block house, built more than 20 years ago, is designed for such vibrations and the explosives calculated a safe power for the city?"

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