Battle earthquake The strongest occurred at 12:54 minutes 22 seconds yesterday afternoon (April 18) at coordinates (14,713 degrees North latitude, 108,468 degrees East longitude), the focal depth is about 8.1 km, in Kon Plong district, Kon Tum province. Shortly after, at 14:19 minutes, a magnitude 3.6 earthquake also occurred in this area. From April 15 to yesterday afternoon, this area recorded a total of 20 earthquakes, of which there were 7 earthquakes on April 15 alone.
In fact, earthquakes began to appear a lot in Kon Plong from April 2021, lasting continuously up to now, there are days when 6-7 earthquakes are recorded, mostly small earthquakes.
The epicenter (asterisk) of the strongest earthquake in Kon Tum recently. Source: Center for Earthquake Reporting and Tsunami Warning
Kon Tum and more broadly the Central Highlands, which rarely record earthquake activity. Therefore, the continuous earthquakes in Kon Plong in the past time, said by Dr. Le Huy Minh, Institute of Geophysics, are likely to be stimulated earthquakes, which occur when hydroelectric and irrigation reservoirs accumulate water, causing water damage. pressure on the underlying fault system.
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Cao Dinh Trieu, an expert in earthquakes, also said that the earthquake in Kon Plong is likely to be a stimulated earthquake because the time of earthquake increase coincides with the time when the Thuong Kon Tum Hydropower Plant is located in the district. Kon Plong operates and generates electricity for unit 1 (March 24, 2021).
In particular, the earthquake area is located on the Rao Quan – A Luoi fault, this is a strong fault zone, running from Laos, through A Luoi (Thua Thien – Hue), extending to Quy Nhon (Binh Dinh). On this fault zone, stimulating earthquakes have been recorded at Tranh 2 hydroelectricity (Quang Nam) and Dak Drinh hydropower (Quang Ngai) when these plants accumulate reservoir water.
In particular, at Song Tranh 2 hydropower plant, earthquakes occurred since 2012, lasting until now, causing many concerns for people and authorities in Bac Tra My and Nam Tra My districts (Quang Nam province). ). At Dak Drinh Hydropower Plant, induced earthquakes occur in a shorter time, with less intensity and frequency.
According to Assoc. Prof. Dr. Cao Dinh Trieu, in the area where the earthquake occurred in Kon Tum, the maximum natural earthquake is estimated to reach about 5.9 degrees, the maximum earthquake stimulation is lower, maybe less than 5 degrees. Therefore, the magnitude 4.5 earthquake yesterday could be the main trigger (the strongest earthquake in the series of excited earthquakes) of the excited earthquake activity in this area. As a rule, after the main trigger, there will be many other earthquakes of smaller magnitude. At Song Tranh 2 Hydropower Plant, the main stimulus has a magnitude of 4.7.
According to Dr. Nguyen Xuan Anh, director of the Center for Earthquake Alerts and Tsunami Warnings, at present, Kon Plong area has only one monitoring station. Therefore, it is necessary to install some additional stations to record earthquake activity, to help strengthen the capacity, to fully and comprehensively assess earthquake activity here, as a basis for recommendations to the authorities. locals and people.
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