Baikal. photo: pxhere.com
On Saturday night, an earthquake occurred in the waters of Lake Baikal on the border of the Irkutsk region and Buryatia, reports the Baikal branch of the Unified Geophysical Service of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
Seismic stations recorded an earthquake magnitude 4.4 with energy class 12 at 1:23 local time (20:35 Moscow time). The epicenter of the earthquake was in the central part of the lake, 27 km southeast of Olkhon Island, at a depth of 10 km.
According to operational data, at the epicenter the force of the shock reached 6 points. In some settlements of the Pribaikalsky region of Buryatia, tremors of up to 5 points were felt, in the village of Khuzhir on Olkhon (Irkutsk region) — 3-4 points, and in Ulan-Ude and Irkutsk — 3 points.
According to preliminary information, There are no reports of destruction on the website of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Emergency Situations of Russia for Buryatia. Nevertheless, experts are preparing to assess the condition of important social objects with the help of task forces.
The Baikal Rift Zone is located in this area, where the Eurasian and Amur tectonic plates diverge; its length is about 2 thousand kilometers. In the central part of the zone there is Lake Baikal, in the south there is Lake Khubsugul (Mongolia), and in the north there is a mountainous region through which the Baikal-Amur Mainline (BAM) passes.
Over the past year, an increase in seismic activity has been noticed in Baikal Rift, however, a decrease in its intensity was recorded in 2023.