The first research unit on surface earthquake in Romania has been commissioned in Galati County on Monday. The stations have been placed in the area of Izvoarele locality, where hundreds of mysterious quakes occurred four years ago.
The unit opened in Galati cost about EUR 400,000 and is inspired by the systems in Japan and USA.
If the unit is successful, the Romanian specialists will ask for financing to expand the system countrywide. Until then, researchers will try to find out what happened in Izvoarele four years ago.
The research unit is built by the National Research-Development Institute for Earth Physics and by the local authorities in Galati.
According to Research and Innovation minister Lucian Georgescu, there are three seismic drilling stations in Izvoarele, Schela and Negrea, located in a triangle shape, and eight surface stations in various areas of the three localities.“It’s a strategic investment for the research”, he said.
The three underground stations are located at an eight-kilometer distance one from another, with sensors being buried at 60-m deep. The devices record the movements of the Earth’s surface, while automatically sending the information to the Institute for Earth Physics.
The head of the institute, Constantin Ionescu said the station is a first in Romania, explaining the data are sent to Bucharest in real time, where there is an automatic calculation system that collects the data, locates the quake, reveals its depth and magnitude, and sends the information to the authorities and the Inspectorate for Emergency Situations in real time.
The new seismic station in Galati will provide details about the structure of the ground and will contribute to drafting the risk maps.
Hundreds of mysterious earthquakes were reported in Izvoarele, Galati four years ago, with over 500 in 2013 and 2014. The origin of the tectonic movements remained a mystery, with experts suspecting an undiscovered fault or the groundwater itself. However, specialists have ruled out the locals’ suspicions that earthquakes might have been caused by the oil wells in the area.