10 most devastating earthquakes in history

Just the other day in the western United States, one ofThe most powerful earthquake in the history of California. Hundreds of thousands of houses were left without light. Infrastructure and roads were partially destroyed. Fortunately, this time there were no casualties. Every year around 100 000 earthquakes of various forces occur in the world. About 100 of them are especially strong. The strongest earthquakes occur much less frequently, but often turn out to be catastrophic. With a lot of casualties and destruction. However, in the history of the Earth there were such earthquakes, which were included in the textbooks as the most deadly. The number of victims in them was hundreds of thousands. About such earthquakes, we recall today.

The most devastating earthquake ever in Japan

September 1, 1923 in the Japanese Kanto regionoccurred one of the most deadly earthquakes in the history of mankind. His magnitude was 8.3 points. It almost completely destroyed Tokyo and Yokohama. According to official figures, the death toll was 174 thousand people. 542,000 people were missing. The total number of victims is about 4 million people. Of the 694,000 houses and buildings, about 381,000 were completely or partially destroyed.

The deadliest earthquake in Iran

The impact force of the earthquake that occurred in DamganDecember 22, 856, was 7.9 points. As it was established later, the epicenter was located not far from the city itself. The complex surrounding geology of this region increased the zone of maximum destruction, which was about 350 kilometers along the Alborz Mountains. The destruction occurred in the cities of Ahevanu, Astana, Tash, Bastam and Shahrud. All the villages near them were very damaged or completely destroyed. The disaster claimed the lives of about 200,000 people.

Earthquake in Haiti. Over 200,000 victims

What happened on January 12, 2010 in the RepublicHaiti earthquake claimed the lives of 222,570 people. According to official figures, 311,000 people were injured. Without missing 869 people. The amount of material damage from the crash was 5.6 billion euros. The epicenter of the earthquake was located 22 kilometers from the capital of the Republic of Haiti, Port-au-Prince. The strength of the first quake was 7 points. After that, a lot of repetitions were recorded. The strength of some was more than 5 points.

Earthquake in ganja

Goygol Lake

September 30, 1139 near the city of GanjaAn earthquake occurred that killed about 230,000 people. According to historians, the elemental impact was so powerful that the Kapaz mountain collapsed because of it, blocking the course of the Akhsu river that ran through it. As a result, eight lakes were formed in the region - one of them was Goygol. Now it is part of the Goygol Reserve, which was established in 1965.

Earthquake in Aleppo

A year earlier, another of the mostdeadly earthquakes in history. On October 11, 1138, an element of 8.5 magnitude killed over 230,000 people. The population of Aleppo recovered only a few centuries later. The earthquake in Aleppo was part of a series of earthquakes that occurred in 1138-1139 and covered the territories of present-day northern Syria, south-western Turkey, and later Iran and Azerbaijan.

The most deadly earthquake in modern history occurred in the Indian Ocean

Consequences of the tsunami at Sumatra

According to various estimates, it killed from 228,000 to300,000 people. The earthquake began on December 26, 2004 in the Indian Ocean near the island of Sumatra. According to different estimates, the magnitude of the earthquake itself ranged from 9.1 to 9.3 points. It is among the three strongest in history. The earthquake caused a tsunami, the waves of which reached the coast of 14 countries. Even reached the coast of Port Elizabeth in South Africa, despite the fact that it was located in 6900 kilometers from the epicenter. In some cases, to the coast reached the wave height above 20 meters.

Earthquake in Gansu and Shaanxi. One of the most tragic

December 16, 1920 in the Chinese provincesGansu and Shaanxi was a devastating earthquake. The strength of his first strike was 7.8 points. This was followed by a series of jolts that lasted for three minutes. They were so powerful that the crust that appeared because of them buried entire villages. The total death toll in this natural disaster was 270,000. Many people died from the cold because they lost their homes. A total of seven Chinese provinces and districts were affected. The area of ​​destruction was 3.8 thousand square kilometers.

The largest earthquake in the history of the Byzantine Empire. Antioch earthquake of 526

According to historians, with this earthquake250,000 people died. It occurred in Antioch, which was part of Byzantium, covering the adjacent areas of Syria. The fires caused by the earthquake destroyed most of the established buildings.

The most devastating earthquake in Tangshan

The catastrophic earthquake struck the ChineseTangshan city on July 28, 1976. Its magnitude was 7.8 points. From the first strike, 90 percent of all urban buildings were destroyed. According to official data, the element claimed 242,419 human lives. According to unofficial data - up to 655,000. The horrific number of human victims is due to the fact that the main impact of the earthquake occurred at night. Almost all the inhabitants of the city were asleep at that moment.

The deadliest earthquake ever. China again

The most deadly earthquake in historyof mankind occurred in the province of Shaanxi on January 23, 1556. The great Chinese earthquake. It killed more than 830,000 people! In the epicenter opened 20-meter dips and cracks. The destruction affected the territory, located from the epicenter of the earthquake in five hundred kilometers.

Such huge human sacrifices are duethe fact that the majority of people lived in fragile houses, as well as in caves dug right in the hillsides. After the very first jolts, the buildings began to sink into the loose soil, and the caves collapsed and were flooded with mudflows.

The most powerful earthquake in history. Chile, 1960

A separate line I would like to remind aboutpowerful earthquake in human history. It happened on May 22, 1960 in Chile. It is also called the Great Chilean Earthquake. Its magnitude was 9.5 points. Strong shocks shocked an area of ​​200,000 square kilometers. The earthquake caused a tsunami, whose waves reached a height of 10 meters. They even reached the city of Hilo in Hawaii about 10 thousand kilometers from the epicenter and caused considerable damage. The remains of a tsunami were observed even off the coast of Japan and the Philippines.

The scale of the tsunami caused by the earthquake in Chile in 1960

Surprisingly, despite such horrificthe scale, the number of victims in this earthquake was less than with others from the list above. This is explained by the fact that the main blow fell on sparsely populated areas. As a result of this earthquake killed 6 thousand people.

The worst earthquake in the history of the USSR

December 7, 1988 the most terrible thing happenedearthquake in the history of the USSR. In the north-west of the Armenian SSR in the city of Spitak, a natural disaster occurred that claimed the lives of 25,000 people and covered almost 40 percent of the territory of Armenia. 140,000 people became disabled as a result of this disaster, 514,000 were left homeless.

The magnitude of the earthquake was 6.8 points. The city itself, which was the epicenter, as well as 58 nearby villages were destroyed to the ground. A series of aftershocks caused significant damage to 21 cities and 300 settlements. The total damage from the earthquake was about 10 billion rubles.

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