Most powerful earthquake in Romanian history
1802 Vrancea earthquake Local date 26 October 1802 Local time 12:55[ 1] Duration 150 seconds[ 2] Magnitude 7.9 Mw Depth 150 km (93 mi) Areas affected Total damage Hundreds of buildings destroyed Max. intensityMMI X (Extreme ) [ 3] [ 4] Landslides Yes Aftershocks 6 Casualties 4 dead[ 3]
The 1802 Vrancea earthquake occurred in the Vrancea Mountains of today's Romania (then Moldavia ) on 26 October [O.S. 14 October] 1802, on St. Paraskeva's Day .[ 5] [ 6] With an estimated intensity of 7.9 on the moment magnitude scale , it is the strongest earthquake ever recorded in Romania[ 6] and one of the strongest in European history. It was felt across an area of more than two million square kilometers in Eastern Europe and the Balkans , from Saint Petersburg to the Aegean Sea .[ 7]
In Bucharest , the earthquake had an estimated intensity of VIII–IX on the Mercalli scale .[ 8] It toppled church steeples[ 9] and caused the Cotroceni Monastery to collapse. Numerous fires broke out, mainly from overturned stoves.[citation needed ] In the Ottoman Empire (today's Bulgaria ), the cities of Ruse , Varna and Vidin were almost completely destroyed.[ 10] The force of the earthquake cracked walls as far north as Moscow .
The main quake was followed by a series of aftershocks , of which the largest had a magnitude of 5.5.[ 11]
^ Constantin, A. P.; Pantea, A.; Stoica, R. (25 May 2010). Vrancea (Romania) subcrustal earthquakes: historical sources and macroseismic intensity assessment (PDF) . Bucharest: National Institute for Earth Physics.
^ "Cel mai puternic cutremur înregistrat vreodată pe teritoriul României" . Atlas Geografic (in Romanian). 21 May 2015.
^ a b "Significant Earthquake Information - Romania" . National Geophysical Data Center.
^ "Cutremurul vrâncean major din 26 octombrie 1802" . Cutremur.net (in Romanian). Archived from the original on 2014-04-13. Retrieved 2014-09-15 .
^ Marius Ionescu. "Bucureștiul și Marele Cutremur de la 1802" . Historia.ro (in Romanian). Archived from the original on 2013-11-29. Retrieved 2014-09-15 .
^ a b Georgescu, Emil-Sever (August 2004). "Forensic Engineering Studies on Historical Earthquakes in Romania" (PDF) . 13th World Conference on Earthquake Engineering . Vancouver, B.C. Retrieved 17 March 2015 .
^ Frohlich, Cliff (7 January 2010). Deep Earthquakes . Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 17. ISBN 978-0521123969 .
^ Georgescu, E. S. (24–26 October 2002). The partial collapse of Coltzea Tower during the Vrancea earthquake of 14/26 October 1802: the historical warning of long-period ground motions site effects in Bucharest . Bucharest: The International Conference Earthquake Loss Estimation and Risk Reduction.
^ Kozák, Jan; Čermák, Vladimír (2010). The Illustrated History of Natural Disasters . Dordrecht: Springer. ISBN 9789048133246 .
^ Popescu, I. G. (May–June 1941). Etude comparative sur quelques tremblements de terre de Roumanie, du type du celui du 10 novembre 1940 (in French). Bucharest: Cartea Romaneasca.
^ Constantin, Angela Petruța; Moldovan, Iren-Adelina; Toader, Victorin Emilian (25–29 August 2014). "Depth and magnitude estimation of the two strongest earthquakes occurred on the Romanian territory in 19th century" (PDF) . Second European Conference on Earthquake Engineering and Seismology . Istanbul.