Seismic studies should be conducted during the construction of high-rise buildings - Academician

Baku/04.07.23/Turan: Despite the aftershocks of the night earthquake in Azerbaijan, they are weak and not felt, there are no grounds for concern, stated by the Director General of the Republican Seismological Service Gurban Yetirmishli. Without ruling out the possibility of a new sensitive earthquake, he added: "but it will not be stronger than the first earthquake." At the same time, Yetirmishli said that there is no seismological map in Azerbaijan that meets modern standards. The last version of such a map in Azerbaijan was compiled in 1957.

"Currently, together with the Ministry of Emergency Situations, work is underway to create a seismological map," Yetirmishli said. He also noted that during the construction of buildings in Azerbaijan, their seismic resistance is taken into account. "In our country, buildings are built with the expectation of withstanding earthquakes of 8 points.

Azerbaijan is located in a seismic zone and earthquakes are a normal phenomenon here," Yetirmishli continued.

Full member of ANAS, Doctor of Geological and Mineral Sciences, Professor Fahraddin Gadirov, in an interview with Turan, said that the equipment and their software that record earthquakes in Azerbaijan are among the most advanced in the world.

According to him, specialists from the United States periodically update programs and obsolete devices are replaced with new ones. He also commented on the differing reports about the strength of the earthquake that occurred on the night of July 4. "At the moment of an earthquake, its calculated parameters are taken as primary information and it may have errors.

Later, within a few days, information is also collected from the surrounding stations and clarifications are carried out. For example, if you look at the sites of the European and Mediterranean Seismological Services, you will see that the magnitude of the night earthquake in the Caspian Sea was 5.4. After 10-15 days, more correct information will be reflected according to the earthquake parameters. Detecting an earthquake is a more complex process and there may be errors in these calculations.

After processing all the data, more accurate information about the depth of the hearth is determined," the scientist noted. 

As for Yetirmishli's statements about the absence of a modern seismic map of Azerbaijan, the academician noted that obviously the head of the seismic service "had in mind maps from awarding seismic points to regions." He stressed that after the 2000 earthquake in the Caspian Sea, a map of the seismological danger for the Caucasus was compiled at the expense of a European grant with the participation of the Republican Seismological Service, which is periodically updated.

Moreover, according to Gadirov, there is even a map of the microseismic zoning of Baku. "The Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources, together with scientists from the Institute of Geology and Geophysics, at the expense of a grant from the Science Development Fund, conducted microtremor measurements at 6 thousand points and compiled maps of microseismic zoning.

On this map, dangerous places with a large seismic wave amplification factor are identified and this is presented in the Ministry of Emergency Situations. I note that in rocky places this coefficient is very low (that is, they are less dangerous, ed. note)," the scientist further noted. According to him, currently 10 wells of the Ministry of Ecology are functioning to measure the groundwater level.

"There used to be 20 such wells in Azerbaijan. Currently, 10 of them are functioning for forecasting. However, it is very difficult to make forecasts through wells. If it were possible to predict earthquakes, then on the basis of data on the groundwater level, destructive earthquakes in Japan, Chile, the USA could be predicted," Gadirov continued.

He believes that the construction of high-rise buildings requires the compilation of "geophysical studies".

"The direction, the placement of the building, can be solved by geophysical studies. For example, a building can be built over faults. It is unacceptable to build them perpendicular to the fault line. The building should be built parallel to the line. For with perpendicular construction during an earthquake, displacements occur on the fault line and thus there may be threats to the stability of the building.

Thus, during the construction of buildings on the territory, seismic and geophysical studies should be carried out.

As far as I know, no seismic studies are being conducted. However, we appeal to construction companies to conduct seismic surveys at the construction site. It is necessary to calculate in advance and know what threats the building may face in the future," Gadirov said.

*According to the updated data of the Republican Seismological Center of the National Academy of Sciences, an earthquake of magnitude 5.5 occurred on July 4 at 00.01 local time in the Caspian Sea 47 km northeast of the city of Siyazan. In Guba, Khachmaz, Shabran, Siyazan regions, tremors with a force of 6 points were felt, in Sumgayit, Baku and Absheron – 5-4 points. ---03B06---