April the 28th, 2022 - Several days have now passed since the strong earthquake which had its epicentre in neighbouring Bosnia and Herzegovina also rocked parts of Croatia. Damage in the wider Dubrovnik area has been reported.

As Morski writes, the Herzegovina earthquake was felt across parts of Croatia, particularly in Dalmatia but also in the more continental regions of the country. In the wider Dubrovnik area, damage to residential and other buildings is very much visible. Seismologists have been busy touring the Dubrovnik area's hills and setting up mobile seismographic devices.

Only twenty kilometres from the epicentre of the earthquake in neighbouring Bosnia and Herzegovina, lies the town of Trnovica on the wider Dubrovnik area's coast, and the earthquake damage on the hundred-year-old houses in the village can be easily seen.

''You could hear how stones were falling, you didn't know if the houses themselves were entirely collapsing, it's dark, you can hear old dry stone walls collapsing and you can't know if everything around you is caving in or not,'' Pero Groseta, a resident of Trnovica, recalls.

''Everything that could have been broken has been broken, our wall has cracked,'' said another local Trnovica resident, Antonija Broketa.

The church of St. Hilarion (Sv. Ilar) in Mlini, just south of the City of Dubrovnik, now needs a new roof as a result of the recent Herzegovina earthquake. The recently renovated interior of the church is now full of cracks, HRT reports.

Cracks also occurred in the walls of the building of the kindergarten in Trsteno, but fortunately the statics of the building haven't been endangered.

''At no time were any of the children endangered, but due to the damage to the facade, and in agreement with the founder, we decided to move the children to a facility in Zaton,'' explains Dijana Brkic, the director of Pcelica (Little Bee) Kindergarten in Trsteno..

Seismologists now have their hands full once again, much like they did back in March and December 2020. They're travelling around the wider Dubrovnik area and setting up new, mobile instruments that they brought with them from Banovina, now synonymous with earthquakes.

''The importance of these devices is to obtain records of all these subsequent earthquakes and tremors that happen every day, even the weakest ones that aren't felt by humans,'' explained Kresimir Kuk, a very well known Croatian seismologist.

''We need to find the quietest possible location, which means that we need to be away from places where there is strong human activity, traffic and so on, so we're looking for a such a place, but we still need quality electricity and a good internet signal to be able to send information to our centre in Zagreb,'' pointed out Snjezan Prevolnik, another seismologist.

The tremors of the ground are still being felt from time to time, and as much as the people of the wider Dubrovnik area are used to tremors, they hope that this situation will calm down quickly.

For more, make sure to check out our lifestyle section.

April the 25th, 2022 - Croatian seismologist Kresimir Kuk has spoken about the recent earthquake in neighbouring Bosnia and Herzegovina which was felt in Dalmatia and even in parts of continental Croatia.

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, many people confirmed that shortly before Friday's strong earthquake that shook Herzegovina and the surrounding areas, and which was felt here in Croatia, they received a warning written on their phones that an earthquake had struck nearby. Croatian seismologist Kresimir Kuk explained in conversation for N1 what it was all about.

Croatian seismologist Kresimir Kuk first pointed out that there are no applications (apps) that can detect an earthquake anywhere in advance, or that can predict an earthquake.

"First of all, there are no applications or ways to predict an earthquake anywhere. All that can be done is that immediately after the earthquake strikes, this information can be made available to people as soon as possible. It needs to be emphasised that it just isn't possible to predict, in any way at all, that there will be an earthquake,'' said Croatian seismologist Kresimir Kuk, before adding:

"What we've noticed these days is that the Google app works on the principle of mass information and that it spreads very quickly with today's technology. It isn't a real early earthquake warning system, it's instead based on the right instruments that can detect earthquakes with certainty and then further inform those people in areas where the earthquake will probably be felt.''

The devastating earthquake in neighbouring Bosnia and Herzegovina has revealed to the general public a very useful feature that Android smartphones have - an earthquake warning system that warns the phone's owner of that danger a few seconds before the impact strikes.

"This is an experimental phase of something based on the mass response of mobile phones which transmit information very quickly. A mobile phone, if it can react and detect some sort of tremor, cannot determine whether it's from an earthquake, but if there is a stronger earthquake in the area, then of course a large number of mobile phones will react to that. On top of that, today's networks can transmit this information very quickly,'' explained the seismologist and continued:

"This is what has now been noticed by people, that a few seconds before seismic waves strike, mobile phone information travels much faster than the earthquake's waves and this is the explanation as why information about the quake was obtained a few seconds before the earthquake or any tremors began.''

He added that this isn't a reliable system and as such, we can't always lean on it.

For more, check out our lifestyle section.