A magnitude 5.3 earthquake struck southern Russia’s Krasnodar region overnight Tuesday, with people reporting shaking buildings accompanied by loud noises in cities along the Black Sea coast.
The Geophysical Survey of the Russian Academy of Sciences recorded the quake at 2:21 a.m. local time. Its epicenter was located 20 kilometers (12 miles) inland, northeast of the resort town of Anapa and 37 kilometers (23 miles) northwest of the port of Novorossiysk.
Local authorities in both Anapa and Novorossiysk did not report any damage as a result of the earthquake. Videos shared on social media, meanwhile, showed violent tremors rattling buildings and furniture inside.
“It shook very strongly. The roar in the mountains was so loud, I thought rocks were falling,” one resident cited by the Euro-Mediterranean Seismological Center said.
The Krasnodar region, which sits at the junction of the Greater Caucasus mountains and the small tectonic plate called the Scythian Plate, experiences moderate earthquakes between magnitudes 4 and 5.5 every few years.
These earthquakes are strong enough to rattle windows and cause minor damage to buildings, but they rarely lead to major destruction.
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