Lenin Peak disaster

Last updated
1990 Hindu Kush earthquake
Memorial near Lenin peak BC.JPG
A memorial plaque near Lenin Peak commemorating the victims of the disaster
UTC  time1990-07-13 14:20:43
ISC  event 362596
USGS-ANSS ComCat
Local dateJuly 13, 1990 (1990-07-13)
Local time18:50:43 AFT
MagnitudeMw  6.4 [1]
Depth216.8 km
Epicenter 36°22′19″N70°44′17″E / 36.372°N 70.738°E / 36.372; 70.738
Max. intensity IV (Light) [2]
Casualties43 dead, 2 injured [3]

The Lenin Peak disaster occurred on 13 July 1990 when 43 climbers were killed during an avalanche on the 7,134-meter-high mountain peak in northeast Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan (then part of the USSR). The deadly avalanche was triggered by a moment magnitude scale 6.4 earthquake which struck at a depth of 216.8 km beneath the Hindu Kush mountains in neighbouring Afghanistan. [1] The incident is believed to be the deadliest mountaineering disaster in history.

Contents

Background

The ongoing continental collision between the Indian Plate and Eurasian Plate results in tectonic uplift, forming the Himalaya, Hindu Kush, and Pamir mountains. The two plates collide along a convergent plate boundary which includes the Main Himalayan Thrust. Broad crustal deformation caused by the Indian Plate ploughing into Eurasia causes uplift within the interior of Asia. This action created the Tibetan Plateau. Shallow earthquakes occur on faults that accommodate the tectonic stresses caused by the collision. Some of the largest earthquakes have exceeded magnitude 8.0, while even moderately large 6.0 events have resulted in thousands of fatalities. Most of these earthquakes are associated with reverse, thrust, or strike-slip faulting.

The earthquake on 13 July did not originate from within a shallow fault; rather it struck at a depth of 216.8 km beneath the surface; far too deep for a shallow crustal source. Where the earthquake occurred, is an "earthquake nest"; an area of high seismicity in a particularly small region. Large earthquakes with magnitudes of up to 7.5 have occurred in the same concentrated region with an average recurrence interval of 15 years. These earthquakes correspond to reverse faulting at a depth of 170 to 280 km. [4] These earthquakes rather than occurring at a plate boundary, are sourced from within the Indian Plate as it dives beneath the Hindu Kush. As the tectonic slab of the Indian Plate descends at a near-vertical angle into the mantle, it stretches and begins to "tear", eventually leading to a slab detachment. [5] This action results in stress accommodation along faults that produces earthquakes when ruptured.

Avalanche

At the time of the quake, 45 mountaineers were at Camp II, at an elevation of 5,300 meters on the Razdelnaya Route to summit the peak. [6] The team consisted of 23 members of the Leningrad Mountaineering Club, six from Czechoslovakia, four Israeli, two Swiss, and a Spaniard. [7] Many of the Soviet fatalities originated from Saint Petersburg in Russia (then Leningrad).

The earthquake caused light shaking, assigned IV on the Mercalli intensity scale, [3] but was significant enough to cause a block of serac to detach and tumble down Lenin Peak. The dislodged serac transformed into an avalanche that crashed onto the camp, killing 43 of the 45 climbers. The two survivors, Alexei Koren and Miroslav Brozman, suffered a broken arm and leg. According to them, some team members were still conscious after the avalanche buried them, but rescue attempts failed when the debris hardened into glacier ice. [8] Survivors and witnesses on the mountain did not report any shaking from the earthquake, presumably because the ice acted like a shock absorber. [8]

The disaster is the worst in the history of mountaineering, alongside the 2014 Nepal snowstorm disaster. The death toll from the incident surpassed that of another event in 1974. Only one body was recovered. [8] In 2008, the glacier ice began to melt, exposing human remains of the expedition. [6]

See also

Related Research Articles

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On 11 June 2012, two moderate earthquakes struck northern Afghanistan, causing a large landslide. The landslide buried the town of Sayi Hazara, trapping 71 people. After four days of digging, only five bodies were recovered and the search was called off. Overall, 75 people were killed and 13 others were injured.

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The 2013 Saravan earthquake occurred with a moment magnitude of 7.7 at 15:14 pm IRDT (UTC+4:30) on 16 April. The shock struck a mountainous area between the cities of Saravan and Khash in Sistan and Baluchestan Province, Iran, close to the border with Pakistan, with a duration of about 25 seconds. The earthquake occurred at an intermediate depth in the Arabian plate lithosphere, near the boundary between the subducting Arabian Plate and the overriding Eurasian Plate at a depth of about 80 km.

The December 2015 Hindu Kush earthquake occurred with a moment magnitude of 6.3 in South Asia on 25 December 2015. One woman was killed in Pakistan. At least 100 people were injured in Pakistan and Afghanistan. The quake was also strongly felt in Tajikistan and India. The epicenter of the earthquake was in the Afghanistan-Tajikistan border region at a depth of 203.4 km.

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The 1983 Hindu Kush earthquake occurred south of Fayzabad, Badakhshan in northeast Afghanistan at 03:52 PST on December 31, 1983, near the border with Pakistan and the USSR. Striking 214.5 km beneath the Hindu Kush mountains, the moment magnitude 7.4 quake affected three countries, killing at least 26 people and injuring several hundred.

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The 1991 Hindu Kush earthquake occurred northeast of Kabul, Afghanistan on February 1, 1991. It was an intermediate-depth earthquake with a hypocenter 142.4 km beneath the Hindu Kush mountains. It measured 6.9 on the moment magnitude scale, and affected neighbouring Pakistan and the USSR. At least 848 people were killed in both countries and damage was estimated at $26 million USD.

Between the period of May 1990 to April 1991, an earthquake sequence occurred in the Department of San Martín, northern Peru. Three large earthquakes of magnitudes (Mw ) 6.6, 6.5 and 7.1 occurred in the same region, causing extensive damage. At least 189 people were killed in the earthquakes.

The 1959 Coatzacoalcos earthquake occurred at 02:25 local time on August 26 near the Mexican state of Veracruz. The earthquake measured 6.4 Mw  at a depth of 21 km (13 mi), and had a maximum Modified Mercalli intensity of VIII (Severe). It had an epicenter immediately off the coast of Coatzacoalcos. The shallow back-arc thrust faulting earthquake damaged the cities of Acayucan, Coatzacoalcos, Jáltipan and Minatitlán. A total of 25 people died, including 10 from Jáltipan while a further 200 were injured. The Middle America Trench, a subduction zone that borders the southwestern coast of Mexico and Central America, accounts for much of the seismicity in Mexico. The eastern side of the country near the Gulf of Mexico rarely experiences large earthquakes although they have been recorded around the Veracruz area, where seismicity is higher compared to other parts of the gulf. Seismicity in the gulf is attributed to back-arc compression due to subduction.

The 1706 Abruzzo earthquake, also known as the Maiella earthquake, occurred on November 3 at 13:00 CEST. The earthquake with a possible epicenter in the Central Apennine Mountains (Maiella), Abruzzo had an estimated moment magnitude of 6.6–6.84 Mw . It was assigned a maximum Mercalli intensity of XI (Extreme), causing tremendous destruction in Valle Peligna. At least 2,400 people were killed.

The 2019 East Azerbaijan earthquake occurred at 03:17 local-time on November 8, 2019. This earthquake had a moment magnitude of 5.9 and had a shallow depth of 20 km.

On September 5, 2022, a reverse faulting earthquake with a moderate magnitude of 5.1 struck Kunar Province, Afghanistan, close to the city of Jalalabad.

The 1957 Sangchal earthquake struck northern Iran's Mazandaran province on 2 July 1957. It had a moment magnitude of 6.6 or 7.1 (Mw ), focal depth of 15 km (9.3 mi), and maximum Modified Mercalli intensity of IX (Violent). It devastated many communities in the Alborz Mountains and caused an estimated 1,500 fatalities. Damage was estimated at US$25 million.

References

  1. 1 2 "M 6.4 - 50 km S of Jurm, Afghanistan". earthquake.usgs.gov. U.S. Geological Survey . Retrieved 13 October 2021.
  2. ↑ International Seismological Centre. Event Bibliography. Thatcham, United Kingdom.[Event  362596 ].
  3. 1 2 "Significant Earthquake Information". ngdc.noaa.gov. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information. Retrieved 14 October 2021.
  4. ↑ Zoya Zarifi; Jens Havskov (2003). "Characteristics of dense nests of deep and intermediate-depth seismicity" (PDF). Advances in Geophysics. 46: 237–278. Bibcode:2003AdGeo..46..237Z. doi:10.1016/S0065-2687(03)46004-4. ISBN   9780120188468.
  5. ↑ Sofia-Katerina Kufner; Najibullah Kakar; Maximiliano Bezada; Wasja Bloch; Sabrina Metzger; Xiaohui Yuan; James Mechie; Lothar Ratschbacher; Shokhruhk Murodkulov; Zhiguo Deng; Bernd Schurr (2021). "The Hindu Kush slab break-off as revealed by deep structure and crustal deformation". Nature Communications. Nature. 12 (1685): 1685. Bibcode:2021NatCo..12.1685K. doi: 10.1038/s41467-021-21760-w . PMC   7966371 . PMID   33727553.
  6. 1 2 "Worst mountaineering disaster". Guinness World Records . Retrieved 14 October 2021.
  7. ↑ "Avalanche kills 40 climbers on Soviet Peak". Moscow, Russia. The Washington Post. 17 July 1990. Retrieved 14 October 2021.
  8. 1 2 3 Slade, Rob (7 August 2015). "Tragedies on the Mountain: Lenin Peak 1990". Wired for Adventure. Retrieved 14 October 2021.
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