January the 2nd, 2021 – The Zagreb earthquake which struck back in March 2020, and the very recent Petrinja earthquake which devastated numerous areas across central Croatia including Petrinja, Sisak and Glina, will remain in Croatia’s collective memory for years to come. I for one will never forget the deafening sound of the Zagreb earthquake. Croatian seismologist Kresimir Kuk has offered some expert words on such natural disasters.
As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, earthquakes, although dangerous, escape our capabilities and protocols as they are impossible to predict and are not really ”properly” distributed over a period of time which can be followed and fully understood.
The shaken and tired residents of Banovina will unfortunately not be able to sleep peacefully for some time to come yet because the area will surely continue to shake for some time, Kresimir Kuk explained.
”The areas of Istria, the Kvarner islands, Slavonia, especially Baranja, the eastern parts along the border… These are places where stronger earthquakes aren’t possible,” said seismologist Kresimir Kuk in conversation with RTL.
Unfortunately, Croatia was hit by two major earthquakes in 2020, the year of the global coronavirus pandemic, which is something not remembered over the last 100 years.
”Fortunately, such strong earthquakes happen in our area very rarely. In seismology, we don’t speak statistically precisely, although we often hear a hundred years as a return period. So, this provides some time within which we hope that such strong earthquakes don’t happen. But I repeat, that isn’t the rule, it’s merely a rough approximation,” Kresimir Kuk concluded.
While earthquakes are sudden events which are totally impossible to properly predict, Kresimir Kuk concluded with certainty that the series of earthquakes across Banovina will last for several more months, varying in their intensity.
For more on the Petrinja earthquake and how you can help, follow our dedicated section.
