Abstract:
The territory of Bulgaria represents a typical example of high seismic risk area in the eastern part of the Balkan Peninsula. The city of Sofia is the capital of Bulgaria. It is situated in the Sofia seismogenic zone. The city is the most populated (the population is of more than 1.2 mil. inhabitants) industrial and cultural region of Bulgaria that faces considerable earthquake risk. In the present study, the two strongest earthquakes (with MW>5.5) occurred in Sofia seismogenic zone after 1900 are presented. The first MW=5.7 earthquake occurred at the beginning of the 20th century on October 18th, 1917. Almost a century later (95 years after the 1917 earthquake) on May 22nd, 2012 an earthquake of moment magnitude 5.6 hit Sofia seismogenic zone.