Worst Earthquakes ever

sci0x

I want to start a thread about earthquakes and info about them such as where they were, damage they caused, no. of people killed etc.

Such as the earthquake in Colima, Mexico which had Magnitude of 7.6.

Lennoxschips

I was in the Kobe one.

mike65

I was in the Kobe one.

:eek: How close to the action were you? When Kobe
ceased to be newsworthy I hoped that the TV News would go back there at some future point to see how the city recovered.

I think the biggest quake in terms of fatalities was in Tokyo in 1926 (?). Most deaths were caused by gas leaks/fires and the fact that Tokyo was mainly wood built.

Mike.

Lennoxschips

I was in the district with the most fatalities, it struck at 5:46 and everything was broken. The thing you remember most is not the shaking, but the sound. People compare the sound to a freight train, but I've stood under a bridge when a freight train goes by and the earthquake was much louder than that. If you can you can picture every rock, boulder, brick, piece of metal and blade of grass over an area of tens and hundreds of square kilometres being shaken like mad, you can imagine the noise that would make.

The shaking was incredibly intense too, the pure power of it is incredible. A heavy oak desk jumped up and down and "walked" five feet across the room. And to think they advise you to take cover under a desk during an Earthquake! (you can't even move anyway, it's like trying to walk through quicksand) Plates were hurled across rooms like frisbees. A picture that was hung on the wall by a piece of string moved around the nail like how you'd swing a bucket, due to the centrifuge-like motion of the shaking. The friction between the picture and the wall left a perfectly circular black ring on the wall.

I had to laugh when I saw on tv that the Museum of Science in London had an "earthquake simulator" that was based on the Kobe earthquake. They filmed people on it being shaken about a bit like as if a bus passed by. If it was in any way an accurate simulation, they wouldn't allow people on it!

There was no gas or water for six weeks afterwards, and god knows what kind of a state the sewers were in. The electricity came back on 12 hours later though, which I found fairly impressive.

Some recovery pictures.

Karoma

North Dublin, Ireland

blondie83

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L30617614.htm

also, found this on google:

the worst earthquake in recorded history happened in the Middle East along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea in the year 1201. From manuscripts and illustrations written about the event shortly afterwards, historians have determined that over one million people lost their lives.

Exit

From the Guinness Book of World Records (1999)

Most People killed in Earthquakes

In July 1201 approx. 1.1 million people are believed to have been killed by a quake in the eastern Mediterranean. Most of the casualties were in Egypt and Syria.

The earthquake that struck the Shaanxi, Shanxi and Henan provinces of China on 2 Feb 1556 is believed to have killed about 830,000 people.

The highest death toll in modern times was caused by the quake in Tangshan, eastern China on 28 July 1976. According to the first official figure, 655,237 people were killed. This was subsequently adjusted to 750,000 and then to 242,000.


Most Material Damage Caused by an Earthquake

The earthquake on Japan's Kanto plain on 1 Sep 1923 destroyed 575,000 homes in Tokyo and Yokohama. The official total of people killed and missing in the quake and its resultant fires was 142,807.

Exit

Also from the same book...

Most People made homeless by an Earthquake

More than 1 million Guatemalans in a 1,310km squared (3,400 miles squared) radius were made homeless at 3:02am on 4 Feb 1976, when a giant earthquake ripped along the Montagua Fault (the boundary between the Caribbean and North American plates) and devastated their houses. The material damage was estimated at $1.4 billion and the quake is widely cited as the worst natural disaster in Central American history. In terms of material damage it was almost matched by the 1972 Nicaraguan earthquake, which devastated Managua and caused $1.3 billion worth of material damage.

BKtje

lmao karoma.

Nothin man made is as powerful s nature. Makes u think

Pepe LeFrits

Originally posted by Exit
From the Guinness Book of World Records (1999)

Most People killed in Earthquakes

In July 1201 approx. 1.1 million people are believed to have been killed by a quake in the eastern Mediterranean. Most of the casualties were in Egypt and Syria.

Considering the world population and population density back then compared to now, i find that hard to believe.

quank

well back then, didnt most of the population live there?

sci0x

Originally posted by kaids
Considering the world population and population density back then compared to now, i find that hard to believe.

Its correct alright. From different sources i get the same info... "The deadliest earthquake in history hit the eastern Mediterranean in July 1201. Approximately 1.1 million people were killed, mostly in Egypt and Syria. This earthquake claimed the most lives of any other natural disaster in recorded history.

The second deadliest quake struck the Chinese province of Shansi on February 2, 1556. It killed 830,000 people."