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.
Contents
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.
Key
| Name | Date | Epicentre | Mag. | MMI | Depth (km) | Notes | Deaths | Injuries |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1802 Vrancea earthquake | 1802-10-14 | Vrancea Mountains, Romania | 7.9 | VIII | 150.0 | The cities of Ruse, Silistra, Varna and Vidin were almost completely destroyed. [1] | ||
| 1818 Sofia earthquake | 1818-04-25 | near Sofia | 6.0 | VII | ||||
| 1838 Vrancea earthquake | 1838-01-11 | Vrancea Mountains, Romania | 7.5 | VII | Felt across much of the country, damage reported in northern Bulgaria. | |||
| 1858 Sofia earthquake | 1858-09-30 | near Sofia | 6.6 | IX | 9.0 | 70-80% of buildings in Sofia suffered damage. | 4 | |
| 1901 Black Sea earthquake | 1901-03-31 | 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 | 1904-04-04 | 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 | 1908-01-10 | near Gorna Oryahovitza | 7.0 | First quake locally measured via seismograph, after one was installed in Sofia in 1905. | ||||
| 1909 Gorna Oryahovitza earthquake | 1909-04-14 | near Gorna Oryahovitza | 7.0 | |||||
| 1913 Ruse earthquake | 1913-06-14 | southwest of Ruse | 6.6 [3] | 15.0 | 37 | |||
| 1928 Chirpan–Plovdiv earthquakes | 1928-04-14 | 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. | 107 | 500 |
| 1942 Razgrad earthquake | 1942-03-17 | near Razgrad | 5.1 | Large parts of the city were damaged. | ||||
| 1977 Vrancea earthquake | 1977-03-04 | 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 | 1977-11-03 | near Velingrad | 5.2 [6] | VI | 6.0 | Nearly 800 buildings were damaged across several counties. | ||
| 1986 Strazhitsa earthquake | 1986-12-07 | 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 | 1990-05-30 | 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 | 2004-10-27 | Vrancea Mountains, Romania | 6.0 | V | Felt across the country, some damage reported in northeastern Bulgaria. | |||
| 2012 Pernik earthquake | 2012-05-22 | 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 | 2014-05-24 | Aegean Sea | 6.9 | V | 6.4 | Widely felt across southern Bulgaria, minor damage reported in areas close to the Greek border. | ||
The New Madrid seismic zone (NMSZ), sometimes called the New Madrid fault line, is a major seismic zone and a prolific source of intraplate earthquakes in the Southern and Midwestern United States, stretching to the southwest from New Madrid, Missouri.
Peak ground acceleration (PGA) is equal to the maximum ground acceleration that occurred during earthquake shaking at a location. PGA is equal to the amplitude of the largest absolute acceleration recorded on an accelerogram at a site during a particular earthquake. Earthquake shaking generally occurs in all three directions. Therefore, PGA is often split into the horizontal and vertical components. Horizontal PGAs are generally larger than those in the vertical direction but this is not always true, especially close to large earthquakes. PGA is an important parameter for earthquake engineering, The design basis earthquake ground motion (DBEGM) is often defined in terms of PGA.
Induced seismicity is typically earthquakes and tremors that are caused by human activity that alters the stresses and strains on Earth's crust. Most induced seismicity is of a low magnitude. A few sites regularly have larger quakes, such as The Geysers geothermal plant in California which averaged two M4 events and 15 M3 events every year from 2004 to 2009. The Human-Induced Earthquake Database (HiQuake) documents all reported cases of induced seismicity proposed on scientific grounds and is the most complete compilation of its kind.
The 2003 Alabama earthquake took place on April 29 at 3:59 A.M. Central Daylight Time eight miles (13 km) east-northeast of Fort Payne, Alabama. The number of people who felt this quake was exceptionally high as the earthquake could be felt in 11 states across the East Coast and as far north as southern Indiana. The earthquake was strongly felt throughout metropolitan Atlanta. The Georgia Building Authority was called out to inspect the historic Georgia State Capitol in downtown Atlanta and other state-owned buildings but found no problems. However, this is not out of the ordinary as earthquakes east of the Rocky Mountains can be felt several times the area felt on West Coast earthquakes. The earthquake was given a magnitude 4.6 on the moment magnitude scale by the USGS and reports of the duration of the shaking range from 10 seconds to as long as 45 seconds. It is tied with a 1973 earthquake near Knoxville, Tennessee as the strongest earthquake ever to occur in the Eastern Tennessee seismic zone, which is the second most active seismic zone east of the Rocky Mountains, with the New Madrid seismic zone the most active.
The Virginia seismic zones in the U.S. state of Virginia include the Giles County seismic zone and the Central Virginia seismic zone. Earthquakes in the state are irregular and rarely reach over 4.5 in magnitude.
The 2008 Dodecanese earthquake occurred near Kattavia on the island of Rhodes in the eastern Mediterranean Sea on 15 July. The quake struck at 06:26 a.m. local time (UTC+3) and one woman was killed when she slipped and fell as she tried to flee her home. However, the earthquake did not cause any major damage. The earthquake was felt across the entire eastern Mediterranean, as far west as Libya, and inland as far as Damascus.
The 1867 Manhattan earthquake struck Riley County, Kansas, in the United States on April 24, 1867, at 20:22 UTC, or about 14:30 local time. The strongest earthquake to originate in the state, it measured 5.1 on a seismic scale that is based on an isoseismal map or the event's felt area. The earthquake's epicenter was near the town of Manhattan.
The 2011 Oklahoma earthquake was a 5.7 magnitude intraplate earthquake which occurred near Prague, Oklahoma on November 5 at 10:53 p.m. CDT in the U.S. state of Oklahoma. The epicenter of the earthquake was in the vicinity of several active wastewater injection wells. According to the United States Geological Survey (USGS), it was the most powerful earthquake ever recorded in Oklahoma until the 2016 Oklahoma earthquake. The previous record was a 5.5 magnitude earthquake that struck near the town of El Reno in 1952. The quake's epicenter was approximately 44 miles (71 km) east-northeast of Oklahoma City, near the town of Sparks and was felt in the neighboring states of Texas, Arkansas, Kansas and Missouri and even as far away as Tennessee and Wisconsin. The quake followed several minor quakes earlier in the day, including a 4.7 magnitude foreshock. The quake had a maximum perceived intensity of VIII (Severe) on the Mercalli intensity scale in the area closest to the epicenter. Numerous aftershocks were detected after the main quake, with a few registering at 4.0 magnitude.
The Oklahoma earthquake swarms are an ongoing series of human activity-induced earthquakes affecting central Oklahoma, southern Kansas, northern Texas since 2009. Beginning in 2009, the frequency of earthquakes in the U.S. state of Oklahoma rapidly increased from an average of fewer than two 3.0+ magnitude earthquakes per year since 1978 to hundreds each year in the 2014–17 period. Thousands of earthquakes have occurred in Oklahoma and surrounding areas in southern Kansas and North Texas since 2009. Scientific studies attribute the rise in earthquakes to the disposal of wastewater produced during oil extraction that has been injected more deeply into the ground.
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On May 4, 2018, an earthquake with a magnitude of Mw 6.9 struck Hawaii island in the Hawaii archipelago at around 12:33 p.m. local time. The earthquake's epicenter was near the south flank of Kīlauea, which has been the site of seismic and volcanic activity since late April of that year. According to the United States Geological Survey the quake was related to the new lava outbreaks at the volcano, and it resulted in the Hilina Slump moving about two feet. It was the largest earthquake to affect Hawaii since the 1975 earthquake, which affected the same region, killing two people and injuring another 28.
In seismology, a seismic zone or seismic belt is an area of seismicity potentially sharing a common cause. It can be referred to as an earthquake belt as well. It may also be a region on a map for which a common areal rate of seismicity is assumed for the purpose of calculating probabilistic ground motions. An obsolete definition is a region on a map in which a common level of seismic design is required.
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The 2020 Central Idaho earthquake occurred in the western United States on March 31, 2020, at 5:52 PM MDT, near Ruffneck Peak in the Sawtooth Mountains of central Idaho, 72 miles (116 km) northeast of Boise and 19 miles (31 km) northwest of Stanley. It had a magnitude of 6.5 and was felt with a maximum intensity of VIII.
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