Earthquake in South America 1960. Valdivian earthquake. The most powerful earthquakes in Russia
Earthquake in Chile in 1960.In May 1960, several very strong and many weak earthquakes occurred on the Pacific coast of South America, in Chile. The strongest of them, measuring 11-12 points (the strongest earthquake in the 20th century according to the scale of the Japanese seismologist Kanamori), was observed on May 22. Its epicenter was in the south of the Arauco Peninsula. Within 1-10 seconds, a huge amount of energy hidden in the bowels of the Earth was consumed. More than half of Chile's provinces were affected, and at least 10 thousand people died. Destruction covered the Pacific coast for more than 1000 km. Large cities were destroyed - Concepcion, which existed for more than 400 years, Valdivia, Puerto Montt, Osorno and others. A coastal strip with an area of 10 thousand km2 sank after the earthquake below the ocean level and found itself covered by a two-meter layer of water. As a result of the Chilean earthquakes, 14 volcanoes became active.
Between 21 and 30 May 1960, a series of aftershocks killed 5,700 people and left another 100,000 homeless, destroying 20% industrial complex countries. The damage caused was estimated at $400 million. In 7 days, almost the entire countryside of the country was reduced to ruins. Multiple strong aftershocks and a giant tsunami devastated more than 100 thousand square kilometers of Andean countryside. Several million Chileans were left homeless.
Gigantic sea waves, which emerged off the coast of Chile during the 1960 earthquake, reached Hawaii, traveling 11,000 km in approximately 15 hours (speed - 730 km/h). A seaographer at Hilo, Hawaii, recorded alternate rises and falls in water levels at approximately 30-minute intervals. Despite the warning, these waves in Hilo and other places in the Hawaiian Islands killed 60 people and caused $75 million in damage. After another 8 hours, the waves reached Japan, once again destroying the port facilities there; 180 people died. There were also casualties and destruction in the Philippines, in New. Zealand and other parts of the Pacific Rim.
The destruction inflicted on the Pacific coast of Chile was terrible. The cause of destruction was tremors, landslides, and eruptions of awakened volcanoes. But no less terrible was the destruction caused by the giant tsunami waves. In Chile, not many people died from the tsunami waves, with the exception of the villages located at the mouth of the Maulin River. About a thousand people are believed to have drowned there. The tsunami washed away the port of Ancund, the capital of the island of Chiloe off the coast of Chile.
Soon after the powerful shock, which occurred at 3 o'clock in the afternoon, residents of the coastal areas noticed that the sea first swelled and its level rose well above the level of the highest tides, and then suddenly receded, and much further than the lowest low tide level. With cries of horror, “The sea is leaving!” everyone rushed to the hills. The wave rushed further across the expanses of the Pacific Ocean. Her next victim was Easter Island. The most majestic building on the island, the ahu Tongariki, is a stone structure made of huge blocks. The wave, which originated 2,000 km from Easter Island, playfully scattered multi-ton stone blocks. Then the tsunami reached the Hawaiian Islands. Here the wave height was about 10 meters and the destruction was terrible. Residential buildings, administrative buildings, and cars were washed away or destroyed. The tsunami killed 60 people. Having swept across the entire Pacific Ocean, giant waves hit Japan. Thousands of houses were washed into the sea, hundreds of ships sank or were broken, 120 people became victims of the rampant water elements.
This is how one of the eyewitnesses who survived this disaster describes his impressions: “At first there was a rather strong shock. Then an underground rumble was heard, as if a thunderstorm was raging somewhere in the distance, a rumble similar to the rumble of thunder. Then I again felt the vibrations of the soil. I decided that, as had happened before, everything would soon stop. But the earth continued to shake. Then I stopped and looked at the clock at the same time. Suddenly, the tremors became so strong that I could barely stay on my feet. The tremors continued, their strength continually increased and became more and more violent, I felt scared. I was thrown from side to side, like on a steamboat in a storm. Two cars passing by were forced to stop. To avoid falling, I knelt down and then stood on all fours. The tremors did not stop. I felt even more scared. Very scary... Ten meters from me, a huge eucalyptus tree broke in half with a terrifying crash. All the trees swayed with incredible force, well, how can I tell you, as if they were twigs that were shaking with all their might. The surface of the road swayed like water. I assure you, this was exactly so! And what: the further all this continued, the more terrible it became. The tremors kept getting stronger. It seemed like the earthquake lasted forever.”
Earthquake in Armenia in 1988.
On December 7, 1988, a strong earthquake, one of the strongest in this country, occurred in Armenia, in the southwestern part former USSR. The earthquake had a magnitude of about 7 on the Richter scale. The impact of tremors manifested itself on the territory of the Republic of Armenia, which is located on the border of two tectonic plates - the Anatolian, shifting to the south, and the Eurasian, shifting to the north.
Dozens of cities and towns in Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia were affected by the earthquake. Armenia was hit the hardest. The city of Spitak (population 16 thousand), located in close proximity to the epicenter of the earthquake, was completely wiped off the face of the earth. The source of the earthquake was located at a depth of up to 20 kilometers from the surface and six kilometers northwest of the city.
More than 80% of the housing stock was destroyed in Leninakan, the second largest city in Armenia with a population of about 250 thousand inhabitants. Half of the development was missing in Kirovakan. The total number of affected villages is 400, of which 58 are heavily destroyed. According to estimates, 25 thousand people died (from other sources - 50 thousand people), more than 17 thousand were injured, 514 (up to 530 according to other estimates) thousand people lost their homes. Along with Spitak and nearby villages, the earthquake damaged buildings in twenty-one cities and towns, and 324 villages. The destruction worsened when the main shock was followed by a series of aftershocks, the strongest of which measured 5.8R. About 2 million Armenians were left homeless and suffering from winter frosts.
The earthquake disabled about forty percent of Armenia's industrial potential. Significant damage was caused to approximately nine million square meters of housing, of which 4.7 million square meters were simply destroyed or subsequently demolished due to the state of disrepair. As a result of the earthquake, general education schools with 210 thousand student places, kindergartens with 42 thousand places, 416 healthcare facilities, two theaters, 14 museums, 391 libraries, 42 cinemas, 349 clubs and cultural centers were destroyed or fell into disrepair. 600 kilometers of roads, 10 kilometers of railway tracks were disabled, 230 were completely or partially destroyed industrial enterprises.
After the earthquake, in just one month in the area of the epicenter, the seismological service of the Caucasus recorded more than a hundred strong aftershocks. Four minutes after the main shock, a strong aftershock occurred, vibrations from it superimposed on seismic waves from the first and apparently increased the damaging effect of the earthquake.
During the earthquake, a 37-kilometer rupture of the earth's surface occurred, with displacement amplitudes from 80 to 170 centimeters. It was formed on the site of a tectonic fault that already existed here, confirming once again that strong earthquakes in this area have occurred before. Strong earthquakes occurred in Armenia in 1679, 1827, 1840, 1926, 1931. However, despite all this, the territory of the Spitak earthquake at that time was not classified as potentially seismically dangerous.
The first plane of the USSR Ministry of Defense, along with military field surgeons and medicines, almost immediately as it became known about the earthquake, took off from Vnukovo airport in Moscow. In Yerevan, military doctors boarded a helicopter and landed in Leninakan two hours later. We sat down late in the evening and in complete darkness. Not a single light shone below, and it seemed strange, where had the living city gone, where were its houses, streets, squares, public gardens? But there was no electricity in the city, just as there was not a single whole house - instead there were mounds and red tuff, rubble, concrete, brick, glass and the remains of furniture. Screams and groans were heard from all sides. With rare flashlights, men climbed these mounds, shouting the names of their wives and children and looking for their lost relatives. Occasionally in the darkness the headlights of ambulances could be seen picking up the wounded.
A representative of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Armenia, who arrived in Spitak in the very first hours of the tragedy, said: “In three days, more than 1,700 alive were pulled out from under the ruins, and over 2,000 people taken out of the ruins can no longer be returned. There is no shortage of labor: they are constantly arriving volunteers from all over the republic and the country. But there is still not enough equipment, especially powerful cranes..."
It’s a sad coincidence that in the minutes when the Spitak earthquake occurred in Ashgabat, which suffered from a devastating earthquake forty years earlier, an all-Union meeting of seismologists was held, dedicated to the anniversary of the Ashgabat disaster when, according to the seismic station in Ashgabat, an earthquake was reported in Armenia. The newly obtained seismograms were laid out right in the meeting room. From them it became clear that this was a disaster and that the destruction was great, and people were now dying under the rubble of buildings in Armenia.
The causes of the tragedy were predetermined in advance - without taking into account the high seismic danger of the area where the cities of Spitak, Gyumri and Kirovakan are located. Houses here were built to withstand much lower seismic impacts. And just as it has already happened almost everywhere - the extremely low quality of buildings built without an accurate assessment of soil conditions for construction sites.
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Earthquake in Chile May 22, 1960 19:11:14 UTC.
Magnitude 9.5
Consequences of the earthquake:
About 1,655 dead, 3,000 injured, 2,000,000 people lost their homes. Damage was estimated at $550 million. The earthquake created a tsunami that killed 61 people.
The results were worldwide, with $75 million in damage caused to Hawaii and 138 people killed in Japan for $50 million in damage. 32 people were killed or missing in the Philippines. There was some destruction on the West Coast of the United States.
Serious damage from the earthquake occurred in Valdivia, in the region of Puerto Montt. Most of the victims and most of damage was caused by a huge tsunami, the tsunami caused damage along the coast of Chile, in the Lebu region of Puerto Aisen and in many areas of the Pacific Ocean.
Puerto Saavedra was completely destroyed by waves that reached a height of 11.5 m (38 ft), with houses destroyed as far as 3 km (2 mi) from the coast. An 8 m (26 ft) wave caused extensive damage in Corral.
The tsunami killed 61 people in Hawaii, mostly in Hilo, where the tsunami reached a height of 10.6 m (35 ft).
Waves over 5.5 m (18 ft) high reached northern Honshu about 1 day after the earthquake, where more than 1,600 homes were destroyed and 185 people were killed or missing.
Another 32 people died or went missing in the Philippines after the tsunami.
Tsunami damage also occurred on Easter Island, Samoa and California. Between one and 1.5 m (3-5 ft) of ground subsidence occurred along the Chilean coast from the southern tip of the Arauco Peninsula.
On May 24, 1960, the Puyehue volcano erupted, sending a plume of smoke and steam reaching 6,000 meters. The eruption continued for several weeks.
This earthquake was preceded by 4 foreshock earthquakes with a magnitude of 7.0, including a magnitude of 7.9 on the Richter scale on May 21, 1960, which caused severe damage in the Concepción area.
This is the largest earthquake of the 20th century.
It should be noted that the death toll from the tsunami outside of Chile as a result of this earthquake was 1,655 people. But some estimates put the death toll at 5,700 people outside of Chile.
The death toll was lower than it might have been because it occurred in the middle of the day, many buildings were earthquake resistant and a series of strong foreshocks made the population ready for it
Earthquake epicenter on the map
The memory of a deceased, but previously so close person must be passed on from generation to generation and preserved for centuries. People understood this even in ancient times, which is confirmed by the funeral monuments made of stone that have survived to our times. The works of the granite workshop “Tsargranite” are monuments that are created taking into account all the recommendations and wishes of our customer, as well as in accordance with all funeral standards.
One of the most powerful earthquakes of our century, the Chilean earthquake, occurred on May 29, 1960. It completely destroyed the city of Concepción, which had existed for more than 400 years. Was And Valdivia, Puerto Montt and other cities were turned into ruins. Tremors, rock falls and landslides affected an area of over 200 thousand km 2, turning into ruins an area larger than Great Britain.
This is how one of the eyewitnesses who survived this disaster describes his impressions: “At first there was a rather strong shock. Then an underground rumble was heard, as if a thunderstorm was raging somewhere in the distance, a rumble similar to the rumble of thunder. Then I felt the ground shaking again. I decided that, as had happened before, everything would soon stop. But the earth continued to shake. Then I stopped, looking at the clock at the same time. Suddenly, the tremors became so strong that I could barely stay in yoga. The tremors continued, their strength continuously increased and became more and more violent. I felt scared. I was tossed from side to side, like on a ship in a storm. Two cars passing by were forced to stop. To avoid falling, I knelt down and then got down on all fours. The tremors did not stop. I felt even more scared. Very scary... Ten meters from me, a huge eucalyptus tree broke in half with a terrifying crash. All the trees swayed with incredible force, well, how can I tell you, as if they were branches that were shaking with all their might. The surface of the road swayed like water... I assure you, it was exactly like that! And the longer all this went on, the more And moose is scarier. The tremors were getting stronger and stronger. The earthquake seemed to last forever" ( G. Taziev. When the Earth trembles. M., "Mir", 1968, p. 35).
One of the exceptional features of this catastrophic earthquake was the descent of a huge strip of coastline below sea level. It is difficult to imagine the size of this gigantic geological phenomenon, which occurred only 15 years ago and was accurately recorded by comparing topographic maps before and after the disaster. In a few seconds, a strip of land 20-30 km wide and 500 km long dropped almost 2 m.
The tremors caused a colossal tsunami.
Several giant waves hit the Chilean coast. The first tide of the sea - “gentle”, as the inhabitants called it - was small. Having risen 4-5 m above the usual level, the sea remained motionless for about 5 minutes. Then it began to retreat. The ebb of the tide was rapid and was accompanied by a terrible noise, similar to the sound of water being sucked in, with some kind of metallic timbre mixed with the roar of a cascading waterfall. The second wave surged 20 minutes later. It roared towards the shore at a tremendous speed of 50-200 km/h, rising up to 8 m. Like a giant hand crumpling a long sheet of paper, the wave, with a roar, demolished all the houses one after another. The sea stood high for 10-15 minutes, and then retreated with the same disgusting sucking roar. The third wave was seen from afar an hour later. It was higher than the second, reaching 10-11 m. Its speed was about 100 km/h. Having fallen on the ruins of houses, piled up by the second wave, the sea froze again for a quarter of an hour, and then began to retreat with the same metallic sound.
Giant waves that originated off the coast of Chile spread throughout the Pacific Ocean at speeds of up to 700 km/h. The main impact of the Chilean earthquake occurred at 19:00. 11 min. GMT, and at 10 o'clock. 30 min. waves reached the Hawaiian Islands. The town of Hilo was partially destroyed, 61 people drowned and 300 were injured. Six hours later, continuing its movement, a tsunami 6 m high hit the coast of the Japanese islands of Honshu and Hokkaido. There, 5 thousand houses were destroyed, about 200 people drowned and 50 thousand were left homeless.
The descriptions of some catastrophic earthquakes given above should help us find the reason that led to the death of Plato's Atlantis.
An earthquake, especially on the ocean coast, is much closer in the nature of its manifestation on the earth's surface to Plato's descriptions than cosmic catastrophes. It is also significant that even the strongest seismic paroxysms occur a thousand times more often than falls of large meteorites.
For our further discussions, it is important that strong earthquakes do not occur everywhere on the globe, but only in relatively narrow seismically active zones encircling our planet. Consequently, if the death of Atlantis is associated with an earthquake, then it must have been located within one of these seismic zones.
Belts where earthquakes occur can be divided into two groups. The first of these includes areas where historical time and geological data indicate that destructive and catastrophic earthquakes are possible in the future. The second group includes seismic belts, in which, although noticeable earthquakes occur, they have never reached destructive power, much less a catastrophic nature.
The longest belt of destructive earthquakes is located along the periphery of the Pacific Ocean. Within its boundaries, catastrophic earthquakes most often occur, one of which (Chile) we talked about. A special feature of this global seismically active zone is that the vast majority of the most powerful tsunamis are confined to it, since very often the epicenters of the strongest earthquakes are located under the ocean floor. The majority of active volcanoes are also confined to this highly seismic Pacific zone.
It is not difficult to see that this enormous seismic belt is many thousands of kilometers away from the areas where Atlantis is supposed to be located. Therefore, we have no reason to connect the intense geological processes occurring in this belt with the death of Plato’s Atlantis.
Attention should be drawn to another highly seismic zone crossing the Eurasian And th continent in the sublatitudinal direction. It starts off the coast of the Atlantic Ocean (Portugal, Spain), covers the Mediterranean and Southern Europe, and continues through the highlands of Central Asia all the way to the Pacific Ocean. The Lisbon disaster of 1755 and the earthquake of 1870 in Greece occurred in this zone. Another highly seismic zone extends from the Pamirs towards Mongolia and the Baikal mountainous country, in which dozens of catastrophic earthquakes have been recorded over historical time, including the Gobi-Altai earthquake of 1957. Outside these zones, catastrophic earthquakes are unknown.
Areas of moderate seismicity are usually located at the edges of highly seismic zones, and also form a number of independent stripes. These are the bands of weak earthquakes stretching along the Urals or the Scandinavian Peninsula. The seismic belt of the underwater mid-ocean ridge, which runs along the axis of the Atlantic Ocean, also falls into this group.
We emphasize that, although tremors occur within the underwater Atlantic Wall, earthquakes here are by no means catastrophic. Consequently, the moderate seismic activity of the mid-ocean ridge of the Atlantic cannot serve as confirmation, as many atlantologists believe, of the death of Atlantis there as a result of a catastrophic earthquake. In contrast Atlantic Ocean The seismicity of the Mediterranean is very high.
Seismic activity manifests itself in the frequency of earthquakes, and most importantly, in their strength. The strength of an earthquake is usually measured in points. In the Soviet Union we have a 12-point scale. Thus, the Ashgabat earthquake of 1948 - the most severe seismic disaster in our country in terms of the number of victims - was magnitude 9. But the strength of an earthquake on the surface of the Earth does not yet indicate the magnitude of the energy that was released underground.
If the source of an earthquake is located deep, then an earthquake with greater energy may appear weaker on the surface than in the case of a less energetic shock near the earth's surface. To compare earthquakes by energy, seismologists use the concept of magnitude, which is the logarithm of the ratio of the seismograph's vibration amplitude to the amplitude of a standard earthquake. If the magnitude of two earthquakes differs by one, this means that the vibration amplitudes of one of them are 10 times greater than the other. When we compare earthquakes by magnitude, we are essentially comparing them by energy.
Since the advent of modern instrumental seismology, the strongest earthquakes in the world include the following two shocks: January 31, 1900 on the coast of Northern Ecuador and the underwater earthquake of March 2, 1933 east of northern Japan. But neither of these great spasms of the Earth is mentioned in the popular literature about earthquakes, since both of them occurred far from large populated areas and did not cause destruction or loss of life. The magnitude of these earthquakes reached 8.9. The Ashgabat earthquake had a magnitude of 7.0. Consequently, it was almost 100 times weaker than the strongest earthquake.
The magnitude of the 1960 earthquake on the Chilean coast was 8.5. Thus, this earthquake was only 5 times weaker in strength than the maximum paroxysm recorded on Earth. The question arises: can an earthquake occur that is much stronger than what we know? After all, geological processes continue on Earth for many millions of years, and quantitative data obtained by seismology are limited to only six to seven decades.
Geophysics and geology now answer quite definitely that earthquakes stronger than magnitude 9 cannot occur on Earth. And that's why. Each earthquake is a shock or a series of shocks resulting from the displacement of rock masses along a fault. The strength of an earthquake and its energy are determined primarily by the size of the earthquake source, i.e. the size of the area where rock displacement occurred. Calculations have shown that even in weak earthquakes, barely perceptible by humans, the area of the fault that revives in the earth’s crust is measured in length and vertically by several meters. In earthquakes of medium strength, which cause the formation of cracks in stone buildings, the size of the source is already kilometers. The most powerful catastrophic earthquakes have a source 500-1000 km long and extending to a depth of 50 km.
Comparative characteristics of weak and strong earthquakes, focal sizes and energy values are given in Table. 1 (according to N.V. Shebalin, 1974).
The largest recorded earthquake has a focal point of 1000×100 km. This figure is already close to the maximum length of faults known on the earth's surface. A further increase in the depth of the source is also impossible, since at depths of more than 100 km the earth's matter is already in a plastic state, close to melting. Consequently, an earthquake such as the Chilean one can be considered close to the maximum.
No matter how terrible the destruction from such earthquakes is, they are still limited to an area of a certain size. Since a catastrophic earthquake occurs along an extended fault, the zone of greatest destruction extends into a relatively narrow strip, a maximum of 20-50 km in width and 300-500 km in length. Outside this zone, the underground impact no longer has catastrophic force. Consequently, Plato's Atlantis could not be completely destroyed by one push, no matter how strong it was. An earthquake would destroy only part of the country.
It is important to note that traces of ancient earthquakes persist for quite a long time. Using material from the Baikal mountain region, N. A. Florepsov and V. P. Solopenko developed a method for determining the strength of earthquakes that occurred many millennia ago, based on the traces of ledges and mountain landslides preserved in the relief. The scars on the face of the Earth tell us about the earthquake and the time when it occurred (by determining the absolute age of wood using the radiocarbon method and from archaeological excavations).
As was evident from the examples, during catastrophic earthquakes, significant areas are lowered (or raised), measured in tens of thousands of square kilometers. If the area subject to earthquakes is located near the sea, then a large area may fall under its level. This took place during the Baikal earthquake of 1861, when the Gypsy steppe with an area of more than 200 km 2 went under water in the delta of the Selenga River, or on the Chilean coast of the Pacific Ocean.
This phenomenon seems to resemble the situation described by Plato - Atlantis went under water. However, the earthquake could not drown Atlantis. The fact is that one catastrophic earthquake will lower the zone adjacent to the epiceptral line by only a few meters, no more. Consequently, the ruins of Atlantis on the coastal bottom could be discovered not only by a scuba diver, but also by any swimmer. In order to sink Atlantis much deeper, some atlantologists allow for repeated subsidence of the legendary country, for example, due to earthquakes repeating one after another. But such an assumption does not have sufficient grounds. The experience of studying earthquakes accumulated all over the world indicates that where a strong, and especially catastrophic, earthquake has occurred, the next seismic catastrophe will not occur soon. An earthquake is a release of stress that has been accumulated for a long time in the earth. The stronger the earthquake, the larger the area surrounding the source is relieved of accumulated stress. For the next strong earthquake to occur, it takes time for the stress in the earth's crust to reach again. And maximum.
How long does this take? In different geological zones, this period is different and is measured from tens of years to several thousand years or more. In the area of Ashgabat, destroyed by an earthquake, there was the Anpau mosque, built in the mid-15th century. It stood completely intact for 000 years and in 1943 was completely destroyed. Consequently, in this area for six centuries there were no tremors of even moderate strength. On the outskirts of Ashgabat, excavations were carried out on the Ak-Tepe and Old Nisa hills. According to prof. G.P. Gorshkov, who familiarized himself in detail with archaeological materials, the destruction of these cities was caused by earthquakes. According to archaeological dating, one earthquake around the 2nd millennium BC. e. (Ak-Tepe), the second, which destroyed the palace in Old Nisa, in the 1st century. n. e., the third strong earthquake was in 943, when more than 5 thousand people died in the area of Old Nisa. Thus, the frequency of earthquakes in the Ashgabat area turns out to be as follows: approximately one per thousand years.
There are numerous cases when after a strong earthquake there was a long period of peace. However, another fact is noted: a destructive earthquake occurred where there had been no such catastrophes before (in historical time). Thus, there is no reason to assume that there are zones where catastrophic earthquakes are repeated so often that they are capable of plunging any significant area deep below sea level in a few thousand years. An earthquake would have destroyed part of the Atlantean state and turned its capital into ruins, but it would not have been able to plunge Atlantis into the depths of the ocean.
Could a giant tsunami have caused the destruction of Atlantis? As you know, a tsunami is one of the side effects of an underground strike or a volcanic explosion near the sea. Therefore, in all such cases, the root cause is not a water wave, but an earthquake or eruption. But often, especially on the Pacific coast, coastal cities are hit by a tsunami caused by an earthquake, the epicenter of which is located thousands and even tens of thousands of kilometers from the site of destruction.
Strong tsunamis produce huge destruction coastal cities. Therefore, scientists are currently intensively studying the problem of studying tsunamis. In the Soviet Union, Japan and the United States, there are special services to warn the population about an approaching sea wave. Based on historical and archival materials, catalogs of all strong tsunamis over historical time have been compiled.
We know that catastrophic tsunamis are not common everywhere. Most of the coasts of the Pacific Ocean are subject to them (but not to the same extent). On other ocean coasts, tsunamis have not been recorded, or they are so weak there that their strength does not exceed the destruction from storm waves.
Huge tsunamis without earthquakes and volcanic explosions, coming from afar, will not destroy Atlantis. Let us note first of all that the action of the will, no matter how high they are, is limited to a maximum of a few kilometers of the coastal strip. Higher areas are generally beyond the reach of these waves. We do not know of examples where even a relatively small island was completely devastated by a tsunami.
Tsunamis are practically non-existent in the Arctic, Atlantic and most of the Indian Oceans. No, because tsunamigenic earthquakes do not occur under the bottom of these oceans. Since we have no reason to place Plato's Atlantis on one of the islands of the Pacific Ocean, we must conclude that a tsunami arising from a distant earthquake could not be the cause of the death of Atlantis.
Special attention should be paid to the possibility of tsunami waves occurring in the Mediterranean Sea. Greek seismologist A. Galanopoulos devoted a special article to this issue. The information he collected from 6 tsunamis that previously occurred in the Mediterranean showed that the coast of this sea basin is susceptible to tsunamis caused by two reasons - underwater and earthquakes, as well as volcanic eruptions under water and near water. It turned out that tsunamis from earthquakes that are weaker in wave height and do not produce catastrophic destruction on the shore. We will focus further on tsunamis generated from volcanic explosions. Here we note that one tsunami could destroy Atlantis. A tsunami can serve as an additional cause of a disaster, but not as the only one.
The most powerful earthquake on the planet that modern civilization remembers occurred on Sunday. May 22, 1960 at 2:55 pm in Valdivia, Chile. It had a magnitude of 9.5 on the Richter scale, 37 epicenters and lasted 10 minutes, causing three tsunamis. These giant waves destroyed and deformed the Chilean coastline, causing more than 5,000 deaths and the complete destruction of fishing villages, eventually reaching the coasts of Japan and California (USA), where they also caused serious property damage and loss of life.
The extreme south of the country (from regions 10 to 13) is an area dotted with canals and fjords with big amount small islands that form a complex, inaccessible terrain. The natural processes that created this landscape were a series of cataclysms that caused uplift and flooding of vast areas. The sea changed the landscape, occupying areas that had previously been dry land. According to geologists, all this happened not so long ago (by geological standards), because despite the fact that the water persistently wears away the rocks, it is still possible to find traces of those cataclysms. Occurred in May 1960 Chile This is one of the most knockout natural disasters that humanity has experienced in the last century. This material is an attempt to introduce the reader to the atmosphere that reigned in those May days. In the south of the country at that time, a strike of coal mining workers had been going on for 3 months. The government, in an attempt to break the will of the protesters, blocked the delivery of food into the zone, which, coupled with the poverty that reigned there at that time, made it almost impossible to emerge from the impending disaster with small losses.
Then in Chile about 7.7 million people lived. Some 2.2 million people lived in the affected area, according to Interior Ministry data, representing just under a third of the country's total population. Taking into account the poor quality of housing in that era, it can be said that 45% of Chileans lived in conditions that are unacceptable today. In addition, a large proportion of the population lived in rural areas, where houses were built from raw bricks and stone laying, which, together with the poor quality of construction and lack of control over buildings already erected, contributed to increased damage.
May 21, 1960.
It was Saturday, May 21, 1960. The earthquake occurred at 6:02 a.m. local time, while it was still night. The entire area of the Arauco Peninsula was shaken by an earthquake of 7.75 magnitude on the Richter scale, which reached intensity VII on the Mercalli scale. There were 19 epicenters, some of them at sea. The damage was mainly expressed in destroyed bell towers and old houses made of weak load-bearing partitions or stones, which crushed hundreds of people with their weight. In Concepción, the road bridge over the Bio Bio River (almost 2 km long) was shortened due to the collapse of a huge section, complicating road communications with cities on the coast of the Gulf of Arauco (Coronel, Lota, Schwager, Lasaquete, Arauco and others). Half an hour later there was a second movement earth's crust, and everything that somehow withstood the first blow (old walls, many buildings with serious damage, but still standing) collapsed. Fortunately, this time there were no casualties, since after the first strike of the disaster people left the heavily damaged buildings and moved to open places - squares, parks and wide streets, which makes obvious the need to have similar places in the event of a disaster in seismic zones . The first day was full of drama; the government was forced to send special representatives to ask international assistance. The breakdown of electrical wires implied a hidden danger of fires at any moment; in addition, the water supply was disrupted, which was not so obvious from the very beginning (since there was still water in the pipes for some time), and people in standing buildings could think that everything was fine , and it was some kind of frivolous, small earthquake.
The next day is May 22, 1960.
It was 14:55 when the grandiose was registered earthquake, whose epicenter may have been at sea. It lasted about 10 minutes. Then experts determined that there were as many as 37 epicenters that emitted energy one by one. The process spread from North to South along a line of 1,350 kilometers, affecting an area of 400,000 square km. Due to the large number of epicenters and coverage area, in some places it ended earlier. And in the area between Puerto Saavedra and Chiloé, the epicenters were both in the sea and in the mountains, alternately provoking each other, and this can explain the duration of the disaster - about 10 minutes. The maximum magnitude in the history of mankind, 9.5 on the Richter scale, was recorded by scientists. On that day, crustal movements covered 13 provinces from Talca to Chiloe, despite the fact that 11 provinces were affected a day earlier. The maximum intensity was XI on the modified Mercalli scale in the Valdivia area, although if you look at some of the affected areas, you can give it all XII on the Mercalli scale. What happened next was simply impossible to describe: collapses, remaining ruins, fires, floods, heavy rains and seaquakes. The final balance of casualties and missing persons was never accurate because local statistics were poorly maintained and there was a lack of lost data for remote areas. Patricio Manns spoke of 10,000 dead. In Valdivia, after the tension and horror of what had happened subsided, one could see the scale of the destruction - cracks in the ground in the middle of the streets, houses in ruins and overflowing rivers in the foothills. But the damage, which was only cautiously talked about at first, was eventually confirmed. Various areas of the city and an area of about 10,000 hectares to the south were flooded, and from the air even today you can see the outlines of farms and the remains of fences that separated one field from another and which today lie in water that has moved 100 km deep. At first this was explained by a rise in sea level, but then it was found that in fact the land had dropped relative to its previous level, and an area 20-30 km long and 500 km wide was covered for some time with a layer of water of 2 meters.
Evidence.
The best way to describe what happened is to look at the testimonies of people who lived through those days. First, let's listen to the priest Father Deschamps. On May 22, he was in the Corral zone. A little before 15:00, Deschamps and his companions set off from Niebla to Corral, crossing the flooded Valdivia River by boat. Some time after they set out, tremors began and they saw the sea dark spots, as if they were whales, but it was sand thrown out from the bottom that rose to the surface. They arrived at their destination at 15:25, half an hour after the earthquake began. On the pier, water covered everything, and while people ran with all their might to the stairs to take shelter on higher ground, the water level reached almost 2 meters above the pier. This was the first relatively soft strike from the sea. "For 5 minutes the water remained calm, 4-5 meters above its usual level. There were 3 ships on the pier: Santiago, San Carlos and Canelos. They all broke their moorings; Santiago (3000 tons displacement) was dragged by a wave across the concrete pier , and all three ended up drifting nearby. At 16:10 the sea began to quickly recede with an unimaginable noise, similar to the sound of mangled metal against the backdrop of a roaring waterfall. As if there was a haze, a cloud of sand, which was usually located at depth, rose from the bottom of the river. People started shouting: “Everything is lost! This is a volcano!" It was unclear what was happening - either the sea was retreating, or, on the contrary, the earth was rising... The second wave came another 20 minutes later, at 16:20. 8 meters high and at an alarming speed of 150-200 kilometers per hour. Its unbearable noise was mixed with the screams of women, since most of the men, from the moment the first wave retreated, came down to see if at least something could still be salvaged from their meager belongings. The wave is like a giant palm that crushes a leaf paper, crushed and destroyed houses one by one with the sound of breaking wood. In 20 seconds, she dragged a bunch (about 800) of crushed houses to the foot of the hill, as if they were matchboxes. And at the moment the earthquake began, some fishermen put their families in boats and departed for the sea... From the height of the hill one could see these watercraft on the waves, after they were dragged by the furious ebb tide. And, as a result, they were instantly swallowed by the sea, leaving no trace... The water stood high about 10 -15 minutes and retreated with the same terrible noise as the first time.
An hour later, the approaching third wave could be seen from afar. She was even higher - 10-11 meters, but walked slower, no more than 100 kilometers per hour. After she crashed on the shore, the sea was calm for about 15 minutes and then retreated, as usual, with those terrible metallic sounds... The three ships were again moved by the wave with unprecedented ease. San Carlos sank very quickly. Santiago drifted for another 3 days on the open sea. After the second wave, Kanelos found himself half a mile from Corral; after the third, he was stuck 1,500 meters upstream of an overflowing river, where he was carried by a huge wave at frightening speed."
Brief summary.
The main epicenter was at 39.5° South Latitude and 74.5° West Longitude and was located at a depth of 60 kilometers. IN Valdivia 2,000 people died (total casualties are estimated at 4,000 to 5,000). About 2 million lost their homes. Some rivers changed the direction of their flow, new lakes appeared, and mountains moved. The landscape has changed seriously. Tsunami crushed everything that continued to stand after the earthquake. Huge sea waves rose and destroyed houses, bridges, and watercraft in their path, some of which were dragged far upstream. The tsunami also reached the shores of Japan (138 dead and $50 million in damage), Hawaii (61 dead and $75 million in damage), and the Philippines (32 dead and missing). The West Coast of the United States also felt the impact of the disaster, suffering $500,000 in economic damage. But after some time another misfortune awaited the country -
The danger of such a natural phenomenon as an earthquake is assessed by most seismologists in points. There are several scales by which the strength of seismic shocks is assessed. The scale, adopted in Russia, Europe and the CIS countries, was developed in 1964. According to data from a 12-point scale, the greatest destructive force is typical for an earthquake of 12 points, and such strong tremors are classified as a “severe catastrophe.” There are also other methods for measuring the strength of shocks, which take into account fundamentally different aspects - the area where the shocks occurred, the time of “shaking” and other factors. However, no matter how the strength of tremors is measured, there are natural disasters that are among the most terrible.
The strength of earthquakes: has there ever been a magnitude 12?
Since the Kamori scale was adopted, and this made it possible to evaluate natural disasters that have not yet disappeared into the dust of centuries, at least 3 earthquakes with a magnitude of 12 have occurred.
- Tragedy in Chile, 1960.
- Destruction in Mongolia, 1957.
- Tremors in the Himalayas, 1950.
In first place in the ranking, which contains the most powerful earthquakes in the world, the 1960 cataclysm, known as the “Great Chilean earthquake" The scale of destruction is estimated at the maximum known 12 points, while the magnitude of the ground vibrations exceeded 9.5 points. The most powerful earthquake in history occurred in May 1960 in Chile, near several cities. The epicenter was Valdivia, where the fluctuations reached a maximum, but the population was warned of the impending danger, since the tremors were felt in nearby provinces of Chile the day before. 10 thousand people are considered dead in this terrible disaster; a lot of people were carried away by the tsunami that began, but experts say that without prior notification there could have been many more victims. By the way, many people were saved due to the fact that the mass of people went to church for Sunday services. At the moment the shaking began, people were in churches that stood.
The most destructive earthquakes in the world include the Gobi-Altai disaster, which swept through Mongolia on December 4, 1957. As a result of the tragedy, the earth was literally turned inside out: fractures formed, demonstrating geological processes that would not be visible under normal circumstances. High mountains in the mountain ranges ceased to exist, the peaks collapsed, and the usual pattern of the mountains was disrupted.
The tremors in populated areas were increasing and continued for quite a long time until they reached 11-12 points. People managed to leave their houses seconds before complete destruction. Dust flying from the mountains covered the cities of southern Mongolia for 48 hours, visibility did not exceed several tens of meters.
Another terrible cataclysm, estimated by seismologists at 11-12 points, occurred in the Himalayas, in the highlands of Tibet, in 1950. The terrible aftermath of the earthquake in the form of mudflows and landslides changed the relief of the mountains beyond recognition. With a terrible roar, the mountains folded like paper, and dust clouds spread from the epicenter to a radius of up to 2000 km.
Tremors from the depths of centuries: what do we know about ancient earthquakes?
The largest earthquakes that occurred in modern times, discussed and well covered in the media.
Thus, they are still widely known, the memory of them, of the victims and destruction, is still fresh. But what about earthquakes that occurred a long time ago - a hundred, two hundred or three hundred years ago? Traces of destruction have long been eliminated, and witnesses either survived the incident or died. Nevertheless historical literature contains traces of the worst earthquakes in the world that occurred a long time ago. Thus, in the chronicles recording the largest earthquakes in the world, it is written that in ancient times tremors occurred much more often than now, and were much stronger. According to one such source, in 365 BC, tremors occurred that affected the entire Mediterranean territory, as a result of which the seabed was exposed before the eyes of eyewitnesses.
Deadly earthquake for one of the Wonders of the World
One of the most famous ancient earthquakes is the destruction of 244 BC. In those days, according to scientists, tremors occurred much more often, but this particular earthquake is especially famous: as a result of the tremors, the statue of the legendary Colossus of Rhodes collapsed. This statue, according to ancient sources, was one of the Eight Wonders of the World. It was a giant beacon in the form of a statue of a man with a torch in his hand. The statue was so huge that a flotilla could sail between its spread legs. The size played a cruel joke on the Colossus: its legs turned out to be too fragile to withstand seismological activity, and the Colossus collapsed.
Iranian earthquake of 856
The death of hundreds of thousands of people as a result of even not very strong earthquakes was common: there were no systems for predicting seismic activity, no warning, no evacuation. Thus, in 856, more than 200 thousand people became victims of tremors in the north of Iran, and the city of Damkhan was wiped off the face of the earth. By the way, the record number of victims from this single earthquake is comparable to the number of earthquake victims in Iran for the rest of the time, until today.
The bloodiest earthquake in the world
The Chinese earthquake of 1565, which destroyed the provinces of Gansu and Shaanxi, killed more than 830 thousand people. This is an absolute record for the number of human casualties, which has not yet been exceeded. It remained in history as the “Great Jiajing Earthquake” (named after the emperor then in power). Historians estimate its power at 7.9 - 8 points, as evidenced by geological surveys.
This is how this phenomenon was described in the chronicles:
“In the winter of 1556, a catastrophic earthquake occurred in Shaanxi and the provinces around it. Our Hua County has suffered numerous troubles and misfortunes. Mountains and rivers changed their location, roads were destroyed. In some places, the ground unexpectedly rose and new hills appeared, or vice versa - parts of the former hills went underground, floated and became new plains. In other places, mudflows constantly occurred, or the ground split and new ravines appeared. Private houses, public buildings, temples and city walls collapsed with lightning speed and completely.”.
Cataclysm for All Saints' Day in Portugal
A terrible tragedy that claimed the lives of more than 80 thousand Portuguese occurred in Lisbon on November 1, 1755. This cataclysm is not included among the most powerful earthquakes in the world either in terms of the number of victims or the strength of seismic activity. But the terrible irony of fate with which this phenomenon broke out is shocking: the tremors began precisely when people went to celebrate the holiday in church. The temples of Lisbon could not stand it and collapsed, burying a huge number of unfortunates, and then the city was covered by a 6-meter tsunami wave, killing the rest of the people on the streets.
The largest earthquakes in the history of the twentieth century
Ten disasters of the 20th century that claimed greatest number lives and brought the most terrible destruction, are reflected in the summary table:
| date | Place | Epicenter | Seismic activity in points | Dead (Persons) |
|
| 22 km from Port-au-Prince | |||||
| Tangshan/Hebei Province | |||||
| Indonesia | |||||
| 90 km from Tokyo | |||||
| Turkmen SSR | |||||
| Erzincan | |||||
| Pakistan | |||||
| 25 km from Chimbote |
Tangshan-1976
The Chinese events of 1976 are captured in Feng Xiaogang's film "Disaster". Despite the relative weakness of the magnitude, the disaster claimed a large number of lives; the first shock provoked the destruction of 90% of residential buildings in Tangshan. The hospital building disappeared without a trace, the opening ground literally swallowed passenger train.
Sumatra 2004, the largest in geographical terms
The 2004 Sumatran earthquake affected several countries: India, Thailand, South Africa, Sri Lanka. The exact number of victims is impossible to calculate, since the main destructive force - the tsunami - carried tens of thousands of people into the ocean. This is the largest earthquake in terms of geography, since its prerequisites were the movement of plates in the Indian Ocean with subsequent tremors over a distance of up to 1600 km. The ocean floor rose as a result of the collision of the Indian and Burmese plates; tsunami waves ran in all directions from the fracture of the plates, which rolled thousands of kilometers and reached the shores.
Haiti 2010, our time
In 2010, Haiti experienced its first major earthquake after almost 260 years of calm. The greatest damage was suffered by the national fund of the republics: the entire center of the capital with its rich cultural heritage, all administrative and government buildings were damaged. More than 232 thousand people died, many of whom were carried away by the tsunami waves. The consequences of the disaster were a surge in the incidence of intestinal diseases and an increase in crime: the tremors destroyed prison buildings, which prisoners immediately took advantage of.
The most powerful earthquakes in Russia
In Russia there are also dangerous seismically active regions where an earthquake can occur. However, most of these Russian territories are located far from densely populated areas, which eliminates the possibility of large destruction and casualties.
The largest earthquakes in Russia, however, are also inscribed in the tragic history of the struggle between the elements and man.
Among the most terrible earthquakes in Russia:
- North Kuril destruction of 1952.
- Neftegorsk destruction in 1995.
Kamchatka-1952
Severo-Kurilsk was completely destroyed as a result of tremors and tsunami on November 4, 1952. Unrest in the ocean, 100 km from the coast, brought waves 20 meters high to the city, hour after hour washing the coast and washing away coastal settlements into the ocean. The terrible flood destroyed all buildings and killed more than 2 thousand people.
Sakhalin-1995
On March 27, 1995, the elements took only 17 seconds to wipe out the workers' village of Neftegorsk in the Sakhalin region. More than 2 thousand residents of the village died, accounting for 80% of the residents. Large-scale destruction did not allow the village to be restored, so locality became a ghost: a memorial plaque was installed in it telling about the victims of the tragedy, and the residents themselves were evacuated.
A dangerous area in Russia from the point of view of seismic activity is any region at the junction of tectonic plates:
- Kamchatka and Sakhalin,
- Caucasian republics,
- Altai region.
In any of these regions, the possibility of a natural earthquake remains possible, since the mechanism of the generation of tremors has not yet been studied.
