Romania Bulgaria Soviet Union Moldavian SSR Ukrainian SSR
Total damage
US$ 2.048 billion
Max. intensity
MMI IX (Violent)
Landslides
Yes
Casualties
1,578 dead, 11,221 injured in Romania 120 dead, 165 injured in Bulgaria 2 dead in Moldova
Enei Church, severely damaged during the 1977 earthquake, was later demolished.
The 1977 Vrancea earthquake occurred on 4 March 1977, at 21:22 local time, and was felt throughout the Balkans. It had a magnitude of 7.5,[1] making it the second most powerful earthquake recorded in Romania in the 20th century, after the 10 November 1940 seismic event. The hypocenter was situated in the Vrancea Mountains, the most seismically active part of Romania, at a depth of 85.3 km.[1][3]
The earthquake killed about 1,578 people (1,424 in Bucharest) in Romania, and wounded more than 11,300.[4] Among the victims were actor Toma Caragiu and writers A. E. Bakonsky, Alexandru Ivasiuc and Corneliu M. Popescu. Communist ruler Nicolae Ceaușescu suspended his official visit to Nigeria and declared a state of emergency.
About 32,900 buildings were damaged or destroyed.[5] Immediately after the earthquake, 35,000 families were without shelter. The economic losses are believed to have been as high as two billion US dollars though the sum was not confirmed by the authorities at that time. A detailed report on the destruction the earthquake caused was never published.[3] Most of the damage was concentrated in Romania's capital, Bucharest, where about 33 large buildings collapsed. Most of those buildings were built before World War II, and were not reinforced. After the earthquake, the Romanian government imposed tougher construction standards, and would use the earthquake as a pretext to start the major demolitions campaign in Bucharest in 1982, a campaign that lasted up to 1991.
In Bulgaria the earthquake is known as the Vrancea earthquake or Svishtov earthquake. Three blocks of flats in the Bulgarian town of Svishtov (near Zimnicea) collapsed, killing more than 100 people. Many other buildings were damaged, including the Church of the Holy Trinity. In Soviet Moldavia the earthquake destroyed and damaged many buildings; in the capital Chișinău a panic broke out.
^ abcdISC-OB Event 700695 [IRIS].
^"Cutremurul din 1977" Archived 2013-03-04 at the Wayback Machine, Comunismul în România
^ abPandea, Razvan-Adrian (4 March 2014). "March 4, 1977 Earthquake". Agerpres. Archived from the original on 28 August 2020. Retrieved 30 May 2015.
^"Cutremurul din 1977". Archived from the original on 2020-12-07. Retrieved 2011-07-05.
^Wenzel, F.; Lungu, D., eds. (1999). Vrancea Earthquakes: Tectonics, Hazard and Risk Mitigation: Contributions from the First International Workshop on Vrancea Earthquakes, Bucharest, Romania, November 1–4, 1997. Dordrecht: Springer Science & Business Media. ISBN 978-9401059947.
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