Azernews.Az

Ice blocks moving southward from the northern part of the Caspian Sea could pose a serious threat to oil platforms, a senior Azerbaijani scholar has told local APA news agency.

"Since ice blocks are moving southward from the north, they could cut the oil platforms like a saw," said Ramiz Mammadov of the Azerbaijan National Academy of Sciences Institute of Geography.

Mammadov recalled that to prevent such a disaster, the Soviet government in 1953 bombed the ice plates to split them. "Azerbaijan’s relevant bodies should be ready for this as well," he said.

The scholar noted that the northern part of the Caspian freezes every year, and in case of severe cold, the basin’s parts in Derbent and Makhachkala in Russia’s Daghestan and even the Absheron Peninsula freeze.

Record low temperature, -11 degrees below zero, was observed in Baku in the morning on Feb.8, weather forecasters reported.

According to 110-year meteorological observations, the lowest temperature was recorded in Baku in 1969 - 10 degrees below zero.