1940 Vrancea earthquake

1940 Vrancea earthquake
1940 Vrancea earthquake is located in Romania
1940 Vrancea earthquake
UTC time1940-11-10 01:39:05
ISC event901696
USGS-ANSSComCat
Local date10 November 1940 (1940-11-10)
Local time03:39:36 (EET)[1]
Magnitude7.7 Mw[2]
Depth133 km[3]
Epicenter45°45′11″N 26°55′55″E / 45.753°N 26.932°E / 45.753; 26.932
Areas affectedRomania, Moldova
Total damage65,000 homes destroyed
Max. intensityMMI X (Extreme)[2][4]
LandslidesYes
Foreshocks6.5 Mw (22 October, 8:37 am)
Aftershocks5.5 Mw (11 November, 8:34 am)[5]
Casualties1,000 dead, 4,000 injured (USGS)[6]
593 dead, 1,271 injured Romania, 78 dead Moldova (URBAN-INCERC)[6]

The 1940 Vrancea earthquake, also known as the 1940 Bucharest earthquake, (Romanian: Cutremurul din 1940) occurred on Sunday, 10 November 1940, in Romania, at 03:39 (local time), when the majority of the population was at home.

The 1940 earthquake registered a magnitude of 7.7 on the moment magnitude scale, being the strongest earthquake recorded in the 20th century in Romania.[7] Its epicenter lay in the Vrancea zone at a depth of about 133 km. The area of maximum intensity for this earthquake was 80,000 km2[4] and macroseismic effects were felt over an area of more than 2,000,000 km2.[3] Effects were reported to the north as far away as Leningrad, over 1,300 km away,[8] with estimated seismic intensities of IV–V (MCS degrees), to the south, as far as Greece, to the east, up to the Kharkov–Moscow line, with estimated intensities of V–VI (MCS degrees), in the west, as far as Belgrade, Budapest and Warsaw.

  1. ^ Elena Marinescu (28 April 2009). "Mărmureanu, contrazis: marele seism din 1940 a fost o replică!". România Liberă (in Romanian).
  2. ^ a b Kronrod, Tatiana; Radulian, Mircea; Panza, Giuliano; Popa, Mihaela; Paskaleva, Ivanka; Radovanovich, Slavica; Gribovszki, Katalin; Sandu, Ilie; Pekevski, Lazo (2013), "Integrated transnational macroseismic data set for the strongest earthquakes of Vrancea (Romania)" (PDF), Tectonophysics, 590: 9, Bibcode:2013Tectp.590....1K, doi:10.1016/j.tecto.2013.01.019, archived from the original (PDF) on 25 August 2015, retrieved 20 September 2014
  3. ^ a b Diana Scarlat (6 October 2013). "Cele două axe ale cutremurelor din România – București-Sofia și Vrancea-Chișinău". Jurnalul Național (in Romanian). Archived from the original on 23 January 2015. Retrieved 20 September 2014.
  4. ^ a b A. Pantea; A. P. Constantin (9 November 2009). "Reevaluated macroseismic map of Vrancea (Romania). Earthquake occurred on November 10, 1940" (PDF). Horia Hulubei National Institute of Physics and Nuclear Engineering.
  5. ^ Petre Țurlea (March 2009). "Cutremurul din 1940". Historia (in Romanian). Archived from the original on 27 August 2015. Retrieved 20 September 2014.
  6. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference 15 wcee was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  7. ^ "POVEȘTI DE BUCUREȘTI. Cutremurul din noiembrie '40, cel mai puternic din secolul XX, a durat trei minute!". Adevărul (in Romanian). 5 March 2011.
  8. ^ "Cutremurul din 10 noiembrie 1940 – date sintetice". INFORISX (in Romanian). Archived from the original on 23 November 2010. Retrieved 20 September 2014.