EARTHQUAKES
ALEPPO
Aleppo, Syria
An earthquake occurs due to the moving of tectonic plates1, moving of Earth’s crust, or the occurrence of a blow, which results in the shaking of Earth’s surface due to the release of energy. While we don’t know the exact number of earthquake casualties throughout history, nor the number of destroyed towns, earthquakes are one of the worst natural disasters which leave people completely helpless, despite technological advancement. One of the most dreadful earthquakes in recorded history took place in the Syrian city of Aleppo, on the shores of the Black Sea, all the way back in 1138.
DID YOU KNOW?
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INTERESTING FACT
| DISASTERS
The epicentre is a point on Earth's surface where the blow of an earthquake is the strongest.
RICHTER MAGNITUDE SCALE The strength of an earthquake is measured by the Richter magnitude scale, which measures the amount of released energy in the hypocentre2 during the earthquake. The Richter magnitude scale doesn't have an upper bound, but since there has still not been an earthquake whose magnitude was classified as 10, the Richter magnitude scale is usually presented to the ninth degree. It is estimated that the Aleppo earthquake had a magnitude of 8.5 on the Richter scale.
¹ A tectonic plate is a large, stable piece of the surface of Earth's crust. 2 A hypocentre is the point of origin of an earthquake inside Earth’s crust.
NIGHT, UNINVITED GUEST The Aleppo earthquake took place on 11 October 1138, though the foreshocks first started a day before. However, since people back then knew very little about earthquakes, no one took these first warning signs seriously. During the night, while most residents of Aleppo were sleeping peacefully in their homes, a devastating and violent shock hit the city and razed it to the ground within seconds.
CRUSADERS’ DEMISE
STATS Some historical sources claim that the Aleppo earthquake took 230,000 lives, which makes it the third deadliest earthquake ever to be recorded.
INTERESTING FACT
The most devastating consequences were felt in the area of Harem, where the Crusaders, who were fighting a historic battle to free Christ’s grave in Jerusalem, took residence. The citadel where the Crusaders lived collapsed, killing 600 warriors.
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EARTHQUAKES
SHAANXI
Shaanxi, China
Shaanxi is a region in the northeastern part of Central China, lying south of the capital, Beijing. In 1556, in the early morning, this region was hit by a strong earthquake, with the epicentre in the Wei River Valley. The catastrophe that ensued during and in the wake of the earthquake will be remembered in recorded history as one of the deadliest disasters which took the lives of hundreds of thousands of people.
DID YOU KNOW?
| DISASTERS
The Shaanxi earthquake is the deadliest earthquake on record.
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DEATH TOLL The total number of casualties was a whopping 830,000 people! Everything in the radius of 840 km2 was destroyed, and in some provinces, as much as 60% of the population was killed.
CONSEQUENCES OF THE EARTHQUAKE
All towns in the radius of 800 km2 suffered major damages. The magnitude of the earthquake itself made the ground in the Shaanxi region drop by around two metres, while crevices, some of which were 20 metres deep, opened in the earth across the region. The number of casualties continued rising after the earthquake, as erosion and landslide caused by the earthquake became the new deadly threat.
THE REASON FOR HEAVY CASUALTIES
1976 EARTHQUAKE The second deadliest earthquake in history also happened in China, in the city of Tangshan. Although the Chinese started constructing far more resilient buildings after the Shaanxi catastrophe, the death toll of the 1976 earthquake was 250,000 people.
INTERESTING FACT
The death toll of the Shaanxi earthquake would have been far lower if it weren’t for the fact that at the time people in this region lived in decrepit houses and in loess caves on high cliffs.
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EARTHQUAKES
MESSINA
Messina, Italy
Compared to other continents, Europe is far safer when it comes to high magnitude earthquakes, but still, many European cities faced earthquakes throughout history. The strongest earthquake that hit the Old Continent occurred in Italy in the early 20th century. In 1908, the earthquake hit the southern tip of the Apennine peninsula, in the area between Sicily and Calabria, and almost wiped the coastal town of Messina off the face of the earth.
DID YOU KNOW?
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INTERESTING FACT
| DISASTERS
With the moment magnitude of 7.2, this earthquake is the most destructive earthquake that hit the European soil.
CASUALTIES The earthquake, which lasted between 30 and 40 seconds, killed between 75,000 and 100,000 people in Messina, while around 25,000 people died in Reggio Calabria, a city which lied only a couple of kilometres across the sea from Messina.
AGONY CONTINUES
The earthquake started in the early morning hours, around 5:20, so the majority of people had almost no chances of saving themselves, as most of them were still in their beds. The force with which the ground was shaking made the gas pipes burst and then the fire broke out in many parts of the city. Hysterical residents sought shelter near the seashores to avoid the fire and the constant collapsing of the city walls. But they walked right into another trap. The shock, with the epicentre between Sicily and the southernmost part of the Italian peninsula, caused a 12-metre tsunami1 only a couple of minutes after the earthquake.
CITY WITHOUT MEMORY
TOURISTS At the time of the earthquake, a large number of tourists and opera lovers were staying in Messina. They had come to Messina to see the performance of the legendary opera by Giuseppe Verdi-Aida. ¹ Tsunami is a series of large waves caused by underwater earthquakes or landslides.
INTERESTING FACT
After it was restored to its former glory many years later, the city of Messina was once again razed to the ground when it was bombed by the Allied air forces in World War II. Messina’s sad fate to be completely destroyed twice in a short period of timeearned it the nickname “city without memory”.
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