YEREVAN. – The news being spread with respect to a looming strong earthquake in Armenia is inaccurate, the Ministry of Emergency Situations (MES) informed.  

“We call upon people to maintain calm and ignore false information disseminated by fear mongers. No scientific, no seismic service in the world can yet make a short-term earthquake prediction,” the MES statement reads.     

To note, and as Armenian News-NEWS.am informed earlier, a 5.5-magnitude tension is accumulated in the earth’s crust at Armenia and its vicinity, said Hrachya Petrosyan, MES Head of the Armenian National Seismic Protection Service, during a press conference on Tuesday. 

In his words, if this tension is released by one earthquake, the latter would measure magnitude 7-8.

Speaking about Monday’s 5.8-magnitude tremor in Georgia, Petrosyan noted that it measured magnitude 4 in Armenia’s northwestern areas, which were closer to the epicenter, and it measured magnitude 3 in Yerevan and Gyumri cities.   

The quake was felt in Azerbaijan, too, and the epicenter was 115 kilometers—in direct line—from the Armenian order. 

“Prior to this earthquake [, however,] several minor shocks were recorded in the region on May 5-7. Three in Iran, two in Armenia, one in Azerbaijan, and one in the border region of Georgia and Armenia.   

This bespeaks certain rise in seismic activity in Armenia. [But] This is a regular process, [and it is] natural for the entire world,” Hrachya Petrosyan added.