The public response and educational outreach through social media after the Zagreb earthquake of 22 March 2020

Abstract

Following the 22 March 2020 ML 5.5 earthquake near Zagreb, Croatia, the citizens became increasingly interested in earthquakes and the multitude of simultaneous visitors caused the webpage with Croatian Seismological Survey reports on earthquakes to crash. To remedy the situation, seismologists used social network accounts to provide information, using the opportunity to educate the citizens on basic concepts of seismology, earthquake preparedness and the occurring seismic sequence. Citizens’ feedback was useful to improve the communication, but required extensive moderation. In July 2020, three seismologists from the Department of Geophysics, Faculty of Science, University of Zagreb, one from the Slovenian Environment Agency, and a psychologist from the Croatian Catholic University conducted a poll to find out which sources of information citizens mostly use, their knowledge about earthquakes, and the level of fear they were experiencing due to the earthquakes. Most respondents relied on institutional sources of information and their knowledge on different aspects of earthquake preparedness increased relatively compared to the time before the earthquake. The majority of respondents was extremely worried on the day of the mainshock, predominantly because they were concerned of a possible stronger event, their safety and the safety of their close ones.