Global Information1802 Vrancea earthquake information
   | |
| 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 | Wallachia
|
| Total damage | Hundreds of buildings destroyed |
| Max. intensity | MMI 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". ngdc.noaa.gov.
- ^ "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.