The Centre Sismologique Euro-Méditerranéen recorded a Magnitude 5.2 Earthquake at a depth of 131 km, roughly 16 km to the north of the town of Nehoiu in Buzău County, in southeast the Muntenia region of Romania, at about 6.40 pm local time (about 2.40 pm GMT) on Monday 16 September 2024. There are no reports of any damage or injuries arising from this event, but it was felt over much of eastern Romania, Moldova, and western Ukraine. This pattern of causing little damage but being felt a considerable distance from the epicentre is typical of deep Earthquakes, the energy of which is dispersed over a wide distance before reaching the surface.
The Carpathian Mountains of Romania form part of the suture formed when the Tethys Ocean closed during the Mesozoic, joining the continents of Laurasia (to the north) and Gondwana (to the south). The area is now internal to the Eurasian continent, but the area to the south, known as the Moesian Platform, has a separate origin to the rest of Europe. This system is once again being stressed by the impact of Africa into Eurasia from the south, with the Anatolian Plate (which underlies Anatolian Turkey), Aegean Plate (which underlies southern Greece) and Adriatic Plate (which underlies eastern Italy and the western Balkan Peninsula) caught between the two larger units, leading to a more complex interplay of stresses across southeastern Europe. The Anatolian and Aegean Plates are located to the south of the Moesian Platform, and are being pushed to the west, while the Adriatic Plate lies to the west of the Aegean Plate and Moesian Platform, and is being pushed to the northeast.
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