The 2000 Baku earthquake occurred on Saturday, November 25, 2000 at 22:10 (18:10 GMT) local time, measuring 7.0 on the Richter scale in the epicentre with 6.3 in Baku, Azerbaijan, and three minutes later followed by a quake measuring 5.9. It was the strongest for almost 160 years, since 1842 in the Baku suburbs and in addition to the capital affected Sumgayit, Shamakhi and neighboring cities. According to the United States Geological Survey, the epicentre was in the Caspian Sea, 25 km to the south south-east of Baku. The earthquake was felt as far away as e.g. Tbilisi, 600 km north west of the epicentre, Makhachkala (up to magnitude 4) and the Karabudakh and Isberbas settlements in Dagestan (up to 5). It is assumed that the earthquake was triggered by active tectonic motion on the border of two major sections of the earth crust – the Turansk plate and the Kopedag-Caucasian folded plate motion area. The earthquake zone gravitates towards Apsheron-Chelekensk deep crust break.
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“Through the din and desultoriness of noon, even in the most Oriental city, is seen the fresh and primitive and savage nature, in which Scythians and Ethiopians and Indians dwell. What is echo, what are light and shade, day and night, ocean and stars, earthquake and eclipse, there? The works of man are everywhere swallowed up in the immensity of nature. The AEgean Sea is but Lake Huron still to the Indian.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)