You have the opportunity to become familiar with information that is in some sense exotic, since it concerns such natural phenomena as earthquakes, which are not traditional for Latvia, and such areas of research as seismology, seismotectonics, and geodynamics.

Of course, the territory of Latvia, and the entire East Baltic region, as a whole, does not belong to seismically active areas, such as Greece, Turkey, Indonesia, Peru, California, Haiti, where on January 12, 2010, a catastrophic earthquake of magnitude 7.0 occurred, Chile, where on February 27, 2010, an even more powerful earthquake with a magnitude of 8.8 occurred. Finally, Japan, where on March 11, 2011, a catastrophic earthquake with a magnitude of 9.0 - 9.1 occurred, which caused tsunami waves up to 7.3 meters high (Soma) and was the cause of the accident at the Fukushima nuclear power plant. 15,896 people died, 6,157 people were injured and 2,536 people were missing. The economic damage from this earthquake is estimated at 309 billion dollars.

The territory of Latvia is remote from the boundaries of tectonic plates, along which the seismically active belts of the Earth are located. It is located within the ancient East European platform, on which the earth's crust is relatively stable.

However, it is known that earthquakes occurred within the platforms, and quite strong ones at that. For example, from December 16, 1811 to February 7, 1812, in the United States, on the territory of the North American platform, five intraplate New Madrid earthquakes occurred, the magnitudes of which were equal to or greater than 8.0.

Therefore, we should not "relax" and "be upset" by the fact that nature has been so unfair to Latvia. As historical data shows, earthquakes have occurred on the territory of Latvia, although not as impressive as New Madrid, but nevertheless frayed not only the nerves of people, but even some buildings.

However, the underground storms in the Eastern Baltics (Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Kaliningrad district of Russia) are not only marked by past "merits". If we evaluate the seismic situation for the recent period, then from November 2016 to January 2019, 551 earthquakes occurred in the North Atlantic (from the Norwegian Sea to Spitsbergen), in Scandinavia and the Baltic countries. As for the Baltic countries, several tectonic earthquakes occurred in neighboring Estonia.

Some contemporaries probably had the chance to personally and "with their own hands" feel the Osmussaar earthquakes in the East Baltic region in October 1976 (magnitude 4.7) or, even more likely, the Kaliningrad earthquakes in September 2004 (maximum magnitude 5.2).

It is these recent, significant, modern earthquakes that have forced researchers to pay closer attention to natural disasters and geodynamics in the East Baltic region. This is especially important given the development of nuclear power and hydropower - the existing Leningrad NPP, the Ostrovets NPP in Belarus, the closed Ignalina NPP in Lithuania, the Baltic NPP under construction in the Kaliningrad region of Russia, as well as large hydroelectric power plants, such as the Plavinas HPP with an unfavorable geodynamic situation.

It should be borne in mind that the interest in these exotic natural phenomena for the East Baltic region is not only educational and scientific in nature, but also purely pragmatic. The fact is that the consequences of the Kaliningrad earthquakes of September 21, 2004 were damage to more than 2,000 houses, 20 people were injured and one person died from a heart attack. The total damage from the Kaliningrad earthquakes is estimated at $5.3 million. The consequences of the Kaliningrad earthquakes also manifested themselves in Latvia.

If we turn to pan-European statistics, it shows that during the period from 1901 to 2003 (102 years) 204 earthquakes with serious consequences occurred in Europe. As a result of these earthquakes 367390 people died, 140711 were injured. The total number of victims reached 9177499 people. The losses amounted to 75.117 billion $.

So, we hope that additional information will allow you, dear reader, to expand your knowledge of such natural phenomena as earthquakes and be "fully armed" in the event of a possible encounter with the "whims" of the underground elements.

The figure above shows a seismicity map of southern Scandinavia and the adjacent territory of the East Baltic region. According to the Institute of Seismology of the University of Helsinki, 279 tectonic earthquakes with magnitudes from - 0.0 to 2.5 were registered in the specified territory in 2023. In the territory of the East Baltic region (inside the polygon), 1 tectonic earthquake was registered in the Gulf of Finland.