Macroseismic survey of the Chulman earthquake of 27 February 2022

An earthquake can cause injury and loss of life, damage to roads and bridges, general property damage, and collapse or destabilization (potentially leading to future collapse) of buildings. Earthquake impact surveys start from the fi rst minute after a disaster. Despite the successful development of instrumental seismology, macroseismic studies cannot be eff ectively replaced by other methods of assessing the characteristics of the macroseismic fi eld of each of the tremors, determining the positions of epicentres and the possibility of giving probable characterization of foci.

This article presents data on the macroseismic manifestations in the epicentral area of the Chulman earthquake on February 27, 2022 in the Aldan plateau in Southern Yakutia. The seismic event led to the collapse of the mine roof at the Denisovskaya coal mine in Neryungri District. Instrumental materials of the seismic station network of the Yakutsk branch of the Federal Research Center “Unifi ed Geophysical Service” of the Russian Academy of Sciences were used in this work.

The work was aimed at macroseismic survey and estimation of the earthquake consequences to determine intensity of earth surface shaking in points. The survey was carried out over 5 days (from February 27 to March 3, 2022) in 8 settlements: Chulman, Neryungri, Sosnovy Bor, Berkakit, Iengra, Zolotinka, Nagorny, and Yuktali.

Based on the results of this study, a macroseismic isoseismic map of this earthquake was constructed, clearly demonstrating the intensity of underground shocks in the settlements in the epicentral zone. The isoseist map is used to clarify the earthquake’s epicentre, the focal size and depth, as well as patterns of shock attenuation at distances from the epicentre.

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