List of earthquakes in Bulgaria

This list of earthquakes in Bulgaria is organized by date and includes events that caused injuries/fatalities, historic quakes, as well events that are notable for other reasons.

Seismic hazard map of Bulgaria, showing the calculated Peak Ground Acceleration in terms of g for a 475-year period

Earthquakes

Key

•   Epicenter outside Bulgaria

Name	Date	Epicentre	Mag.	MMI	Depth (km)	Notes	Deaths	Injuries
1802 Vrancea earthquake	1802101400001802-10-14	Vrancea Mountains, Romania	7.9	VIII	150.0	The cities of Ruse, Silistra, Varna and Vidin were almost completely destroyed. [1]
1818 Sofia earthquake	1818042500001818-04-25	near Sofia	6.0	VII
1838 Vrancea earthquake	1838011100001838-01-11	Vrancea Mountains, Romania	7.5	VII		Felt across much of the country, damage reported in northern Bulgaria.
1858 Sofia earthquake	1858093000001858-09-30	near Sofia	6.6	IX	9.0	70-80% of buildings in Sofia suffered damage.	4
1901 Black Sea earthquake	1901033100001901-03-31	off Cape Kaliakra	7.2	X	14.0	More than 1,200 houses destroyed. Quake generated a 4–5 m high tsunami that devastated coastal communities on both sides of the Bulgarian-Romanian border.	4	50+
1904 Kresna earthquakes	1904040400001904-04-04	near Krupnik	7.2 Ms  [2]		11.0	One of the largest shallow 20th century earthquakes on land in the Balkans, preceded by a very powerful 7.1 foreshock. Felt as far away as Budapest, Hungary.	200+
1908 Gorna Oryahovitza earthquake	1908011000001908-01-10	near Gorna Oryahovitza	7.0			First quake locally measured via seismograph, after one was installed in Sofia in 1905.
1909 Gorna Oryahovitza earthquake	1909041400001909-04-14	near Gorna Oryahovitza	7.0
1913 Ruse earthquake	1913061400001913-06-14	southwest of Ruse	6.6 [3]		15.0		37
1928 Chirpan–Plovdiv earthquakes	1928041400001928-04-14	near Chirpan	7.1 and 7.1 [4]	IX	10.0	Followed by a 7.1 aftershock at a depth of 15.0 km on April 18. More than 26,000 buildings were destroyed, another 21,000 were severely damaged.	127	500
1942 Razgrad earthquake	1942031700001942-03-17	near Razgrad	5.1			Large parts of the city were damaged.
1977 Vrancea earthquake	1977030400001977-03-04	Vrancea Mountains, Romania	7.2	VIII	94.0	Most casualties occurred in Svishtov when several apartment buildings collapsed. [5] Widely felt across the entire country, with minor damage reported as far south as Plovdiv.	120	165
1977 Velingrad earthquake	1977110300001977-11-03	near Velingrad	5.2 [6]	VI	6.0	Nearly 800 buildings were damaged across several counties.
1986 Strazhitsa earthquake	1986120700001986-12-07	near Strazhitsa	5.6 [7]	VII	20.5	80% of buildings in Strazhitsa were deemed 'uninhabitable' after the quake, with 150 being completely destroyed. The town was later rebuilt.	3	80
1990 Vrancea earthquakes	1990053000001990-05-30	Vrancea Mountains, Romania	6.7	V	89.0	Moderate damage in northeastern Bulgaria. Main event was followed by a 6.1 aftershock on May 31.	1
2004 Vrancea earthquake	2004102700002004-10-27	Vrancea Mountains, Romania	6.0	V		Felt across the country, some damage reported in northeastern Bulgaria.
2012 Pernik earthquake	2012052700002012-05-22	near Pernik	5.6 [8]	VI	10.0	Caused at least €11,000,000 worth of damage, mostly in Pernik, and to a lesser degree in the capital Sofia.	1
2014 Aegean Sea earthquake	2014052400002014-05-24	Aegean Sea	6.9	V	6.4	Widely felt across southern Bulgaria, minor damage reported in areas close to the Greek border.

Gallery

• 
  Bent rails after the 1928 Chirpan earthquake
• 
  King Boris III of Bulgaria meeting with people from Plovdiv in the aftermath of the 1928 quake
• 
  The Catholic Hospital in Plovdiv after the 1928 quake
• 
  Damaged bell tower in the Bulgarian village of Yuper after the 1977 Vrancea earthquake
• 
  One of the three towers of the Republika Power Plant in Pernik collapsed after the 2012 earthquake
• 
  USGS seismic hazard map showing Bulgaria, as well as the Vrancea Mountains fault in central Romania
• 
  Bulgarian Academy of Sciences seismic hazard map showing maximum acceleration for a repeat period of 475 years

See also

• List of earthquakes in Romania
• List of earthquakes in Italy
• List of earthquakes in Croatia

External links

• Seismic events in Bulgaria and surrounding regions, last 30 days – real time data from NIGGG-BAS

References

1. Popescu, I. G. (May–June 1941). Étude comparative sur quelques tremblements de terre de Roumanie, du type du celui du 10 novembre 1940 (in French). Bucharest: Cartea Romaneasca.
2. Ambraseys, N. (2001). "The Kresna earthquake of 1904 in Bulgaria". Annals of Geophysics. 44 (1): 102. doi: 10.4401/ag-3614 .
3. "M 6.6 – Bulgaria". United States Geological Survey. March 4, 2018. Retrieved March 4, 2018.
4. "M 7.1 – Bulgaria". United States Geological Survey. March 4, 2018. Retrieved March 4, 2018.
5. "Svishtov commemorates memory of 1977 earthquake victims". bnr.bg. Retrieved 2024-10-29.
6. "M 5.2 – Bulgaria". United States Geological Survey. March 4, 2018. Retrieved March 4, 2018.
7. "M 5.6 – Bulgaria". United States Geological Survey. March 4, 2018. Retrieved March 4, 2018.
8. "M 5.6 – Bulgaria". United States Geological Survey. March 4, 2018. Retrieved March 4, 2018.