December 29, 2020 Earthquake: Petrinja, Croatia, Balkans NW

Ref #1053:

Seven people killed, including 5 at Glina, 1 at Petrinja and 1 at Zazina and at least 26 people injured in the Petrinja-Sisak area. Preliminary damage reports that half of the town of Petrinja destroyed, more than 700 buildings damaged or destroyed at Sisak and many buildings damaged at Zagreb. Some buildings damaged in northwestern Bosnia and Herzegovina and along the Slovenia-Croatia border.

Bosanska Kostajnica, Republika Srpska, Bosnia and Herzegovina - CDI: 9; Petrinja, Sisak-Moslavina, Croatia - CDI: 9; Sisak, Sisak-Moslavina, Croatia - CDI: 8; Kraljevica, Primorje-Gorski Kotar, Croatia - CDI: 8; Glina, Sisak-Moslavina, Croatia - CDI: 8

Tectonic Summary

The December 29, 2020 earthquake near Petrinja, Croatia, occurred as a result of shallow strike-slip faulting within the Eurasia Plate. Focal mechanism solutions for the event indicate that rupture occurred on a nearly vertical fault striking either to the southeast or southwest. The location and depth of the event indicate that this was an intraplate earthquake occurring within the Eurasia plate as opposed to along a major tectonic boundary.

Tectonics of the Mediterranean Sea, in the convergent boundary region between Africa and Eurasia, are complex, and involve the motions of numerous microplates and regional-scale structures. The Adriatic block immediately west of today's earthquake is thought to move somewhat independently to Eurasia and Africa, driving surrounding faulting in Italy and along the eastern Adriatic coast from Croatia to Albania.

This is the largest earthquake to occur in Croatia since the advent of modern seismic instrumentation. It was preceded by two sizeable foreshocks, a magnitude 4.7 and a magnitude 5.2 on December 28. About one in twenty earthquakes have foreshocks. An earthquake of similar size to the recent M6.4 occurred in 1880 near Zagreb and there have been three magnitude 6 and larger earthquakes within 200 km of the December 29, 2020 earthquake since 1900. Recently a M5.6 earthquake occurred on November 27, 1990, 175 km to the southeast which injured 10 people.

Ref #12823:

earthquake in central Croatia that killed seven people and destroyed scores of homes and other buildings [...] As well as the seven killed, 26 were injured, including six who are seriously wounded, officials said [...] In the village of Majske Poljane, where five of the people died, the vast majority of the houses were completely destroyed.

Ref #1250:

1 bn USD in damage, 7 deaths, 24 injured

Ref #12840:

Eight people died, including a 13-year-old girl from Petrinja; 36 persons have been injured, and 30 persons saved from rubbles.

There has been widespread damage to buildings and infrastructure. So far, authorities have received more than 46,000 reports of damaged buildings. The initial assessment confirmed that there are at least 1,500 families near Sisak, Petrinja and Glina who have lost their homes as a result of the earthquake. 9 school buildings are unusable due to the severe damage, 12 are temporarily unusable and could be reconstructed, 12 are usable with certain parts of buildings still posing a risk and 23 school buildings are usable without limitations. Healthcare facilities in Petrinja and Glina are unsalvageable.

Ref# 13304:

8 people were killed and at least 36 people were injured. The Government estimated direct damages on public and residential buildings as well as infrastructure at 4,8 billion EUR (CHF 4,92 billion)

Buildings: 4,617 were classified as uninhabitable and 8,165 as temporarily uninhabitable – a total of 12,782.

Ref# 13727:

1.224 billion USD in economic loss