During the last century, a great number of devastating earthquakes occurred in the western Balkan region, causing a great number of casualties and substantial structural damage. In order to describe the character and intensity of seismic activity in the central Mediterranean region, on the Figure 1 is presented the distribution of earthquakes occurred during the last 33 years (NEIC Earthquake Catalogue).

Fig. 1: Seismic map of the region represented by epicenters of stronger earthquakes occured during the last 33 years (NEIC earthquake catalogue) .

   In the beginning of the twentieth century two great earthquakes struck this region - in 1905 near Shkodra, Albania the earthquake of magnitude 6.6 and epicentral intensity up to X (in Mercalli scale) destroyed the whole north-western part of Albania and southern-eastern part of Montenegro. One year later another big earthquake (magnitude 6.1) close to Zagreb , struck the northern Croatia . In the border region of Croatia – Bosnia and Herzegovina , two earthquakes with magnitude 6.2 occurred in 1923 and 1942. Earthquake in Skopje , Macedonia with magnitude 6.2, making maximum epicentral intensity of X Mercalli degrees, took 1.070 lives and caused great material loss (Fig. 2). Six years later, western part of Bosnia and Herzegovina hit strong, devastating earthquake with magnitude 6.1. On April 15, 1979 a very strong earthquake devastated the southern Adriatic coastal area, causing 136 deaths in Montenegro and Albania and more than 4 billion US dollars (at that time) of material loss only in Montenegro (Fig. 2). Just one year later, an earthquake with magnitude 6.0 hit the Kopaonik region on southwest of Serbia , also causing significant destruction and material damages.

Fig. 2. Destroyed building during destructive earthquake in Skopje, Macedonia in 1963, with magnitude 6.2 (left) and collapsed hotel structure in Montenegro, during the earthquake in 1979, with magnitude 7.0 (right).

   Based on statistics of seismicity, every 10 - 15 years this region strikes a destructive earthquake, while every 60-70 years a catastrophic one occurs. Unfortunately, during the last 20 years, at the region that is outlined by the territories of Project participating countries, a significant increase of seismic risk is evident. This is a qonsequence of intensive human population densification and rise of economical values, mostly in the regions with the highest level of seismic hazard.