Earthquakes are unpredictable even with the sophisticated equipment the Geophysical Institute has, though some people claim that they could "sense" when an earth tremor is underway and their "predictions" are being broadcast for everyone to hear, Nikolai Miloshev, director of the institute said at a news conference on November 17 2008.

Thus far, since the two tremors during the passed weekend, another 24 lighter tremors have been registered, the last one at 12.08pm on the day of the conference, but with a magnitude only at 0.5, said specialists from the institute, which is affiliated with the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (BAS).

As previously reported by The Sofia Echo, the epicentre of the first tremor of four on the Richter Scale on November 15 2008, had been in Sofia's southern regions, with some describing the epicentre having been Sofia's South Park, while other reports said that it had been at a point between Bistritsa and Zhelenitsa. According to the website of the European-Mediterranean Seismological Centre, the earth tremor had been registered at 42.57 N, 23.35 E, at a depth of five km, 14km south of Sofia. According to Google Earth, however, this map reference is a point about halfway between the towns of Svoge and Botevgrad. The second, a 3.5 tremor at 7am came on November 16.

A representative from the Emergency Situations Ministry said that there had been about 12 signals for possible damages, which have been primarily internal and external cracks and several fallen chimneys.

Initial information suggested that the passed tremors had vertical shock waves, Emil Botev, head of the Seismology department at BAS, said. He added that older buildings in Sofia dating back up to a century ago were more endangered by horizontal waves due to construction specifics. He said that modern construction was more reliable and earthquake-secure.

"In Sofia, a 4.0 tremor is a rare occurrence, but unfortunately, we do not have enough collected data regarding the seismic activity in the Sofia region, so we could not answer the question how long the mild quakes would continue," Botev, said. "We expect the activity to quiet down within two weeks."

Miloshev said that the specialists would not commit to any forecasts for the near future, though no relevant information would be withheld from the public. He said he'd been asked numerous times, why information about the weekend's tremors first appeared on the website of the European-Mediterranean Seismological Centre (EMSE) as well as why it was different from the one provided by Bulgarian institutions.

The EMSE is a NGO that gathers information from various sources, including from Bulgaria, so they have posted whatever the local seismological centre has submitted, along with other countries, Miloshev said. This is a technological question that could be solved with little funds, he said.

"We as a society, do not have sufficient knowledge about earthquakes," Miloshev said, referring to recent TV appearance of psychic Maya Popova, when she warned that there will be an earthquake in south-west Bulgaria, with magnitude higher than 3.0. "Ok. I do not wish to underestimate such predictions, but what do you propose we do in such situations? Should we evacuate the entire southwest region? Could you imagine the panic magnitude then?"

Dimcho Solakov from the Geophysical Institute said that every month there was at least one tremor in south-west Bulgaria with 3.0 magnitude.

Miloshev added that there are people who probably could "sense" that an earthquake is coming, but he did not believe that an exact prognosis as when and where it would happen was possible. "Then, imagine if a date is indicated and the whole city spends the night on the streets, shaken more by fear rather than an earthquake. Is this a plausible solution to you?"