Though it doesn't normally experience earthquakes of a large magnitude, earthquakes are not uncommon to Albania. Their most recent quake (February 2nd, 2013) was registered anywhere from 3.3 to 4.6 magnitude, depending on the city, and caused very little damage.
http://www.examiner.com/article/earthquake-rattles-albania
The Mediterranean region is seismically active, but rarely does it have deadly earthquakes. The last deadly earthquake in Albania was in 1982 and had 1 casualty, while the most recent deadly earthquake before that was in 1967 with 18 casualties.
I don't know much about the science or geography concerning earthquakes, but this makes a lot of sense to me because the earthquakes that I hear about that cause damage normally seem to occur in regions adjacent to the Pacific Ocean.
Update (2/6/2013) - On February 5th, 2013 Albania experienced another earthquake of about a 3.3 magnitude.
I saw this pop up on my Albania google alerts and I thought it was interesting that minor earthquakes happen so frequently. It's also really interesting how small the amount of causalities has been over such the past 50+ years. I guess this is because we only really ever hear about the really bad ones. I also had no idea that another one occurred on Monday.
ReplyDeleteIt is definitely important to keep an eye out on natural disasters and its patterns. A large natural event could involve regional and international organizations in humanitarian aid, violence, and refugee migrations. Since the earthquakes seem mild, this probably will not be a problem in Albania but it's something to be aware of in any case.
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