Small earthquakes expected, says Institute for Earth Physics; Bucharest has 1,000 shelters
Mayor Oprescu said that about 50 high seismic risk buildings are currently being rehabilitated, and stressed the capital has 301 high earthquake risk buildings. In 2011, local authorities will provide people with individual first-aid kits.
According to the Institute for Earth Physics, Romania annually faces a large number of small earthquakes of magnitudes below four degrees on Richter scale, which trigger no catastrophic earthquakes. Marmureanu underscored the institute has state-of-the-art equipment that can detect even an earthquake of 0.02 degrees.
The Vrancea area is known for frequent seismic movements and historical analyses show three earthquakes of magnitudes higher than 7.2 occur throughout a century. The most recent high magnitude quakes in Vrancea occurred in 1940, 1977, 1986 and 1990.
Mediafax