The 2012 Pernik earthquake was a 5.6 magnitude

earthquake An earthquake (also known as a quake, tremor or temblor) is the shaking of the surface of the Earth resulting from a sudden release of energy in the Earth's lithosphere that creates seismic waves. Earthquakes can range in intensity, fr ...

, which struck 24 km (15 miles) west of

Bulgaria Bulgaria (; bg, България, Bǎlgariya), officially the Republic of Bulgaria,, ) is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern flank of the Balkans, and is bordered by Romania to the north, Serbia and North Macedo ...

's capital

Sofia Sofia ( ; bg, София, Sofiya, ) is the capital and largest city of Bulgaria. It is situated in the Sofia Valley at the foot of the Vitosha mountain in the western parts of the country. The city is built west of the Iskar river, and h ...

and 9 km (6 miles) north-northwest of the provincial center

Pernik Pernik ( bg, Перник ) is a town in western Bulgaria (about south-west of Sofia) with a population of 70,285 . Pernik is the most populated town in western Bulgaria after Sofia. It is the main town of Pernik Province and lies on both bank ...

on at 3:00 am

local time Local time is the time observed in a specific locality. There is no canonical definition. Originally it was mean solar time, but since the introduction of time zones it is generally the time as determined by the time zone in effect, with daylight s ...

(00:00 UTC) at a depth of .

Impact

Pernik-TPS-tower-after-earhtquake-22052012

An emergency was declared in Pernik in the immediate aftermath of the earthquake. Mayors from nearby villages reported no significant damage. Many residents in Sofia were reported to have fled their homes and gathered in the streets. ''

Xinhua Xinhua News Agency (English pronunciation: )J. C. Wells: Longman Pronunciation Dictionary, 3rd ed., for both British and American English, or New China News Agency, is the official state news agency of the People's Republic of China. Xinhua ...

'' journalists in the capital reported that Internet connectivity had been cut off. According to the civil defense office, there were widespread reports of toppled chimneys, cracked walls and broken windows in the Pernik area, where a state of emergency was declared for 24 hours. One of the tall chimneys of the city's Republika Power Plant partially collapsed during the tremor, and as a result the capacity has been temporarily reduced.

Casualties

A 59-year-old woman from

Kyustendil Kyustendil ( bg, Кюстендил ) is a town in the far west of Bulgaria, the capital of the Kyustendil Province, a former bishopric and present Latin Catholic titular see. The town is situated in the southern part of the Kyustendil Valley, ...

had a heart attack and was listed as the only indirect casualty.

Aftermath

The Bulgarian government initially sent 14 teams to the area to assess the damage, and their first reports concluded that around 60% of all homes have been affected. At least 150 people have been relocated to temporary shelters, and several schools and kindergartens in the area would have to be demolished or rebuilt. A total of 14,000 buildings were eventually inspected, and approximately 50 of them will be torn down. Initial estimates put the damage costs in the capital Sofia at around 1.3 million

leva Leva may refer to: * Bulgarian lev, Bulgarian currency * ''Leva'' (grasshopper), a genus of insects * Levice Levice (; hu, Léva, Hungarian pronunciation: ; german: Lewenz, literally lionesses) is a town in western Slovakia. The town lies on ...

(around 660,000 euro), while the city of Pernik suffered at least 20 million leva (around 10.2 million euro).

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:2012 Sofia Earthquake

2012 in Bulgaria Earthquakes in Bulgaria Pernik May 2012 events in Europe

Impact

Casualties

Aftermath

See also

References

Further reading

External links