Earthquake struck Moldova, Romania, Bulgaria 30 years ago tomorrow

Thirty years ago, on March 4, 1977, a devastating earthquake struck Moldova, Romania, and Bulgaria. The tragedy resulted in thousands of casualties and collapsed houses. It occurred on Friday, 4 March, 1977, 21:20 local time and was felt throughout the Balkans. It had a magnitude of 7.4 and its epicentre in Vrancea (in the Eastern Carpathians) at a depth of 94 kilometres, Info-Prim Neo reports. A similar earthquake was registered in 1940. Old people already knew the sensation, but youth thought that only a nuclear war could produce such an impact – the horrible rumble, trees shaking without wind and the oscillation of houses. Buildings in Chisinau resisted the impact, due to their placing in less dangerous sites. Proper planning conducted by the Seismology Centre of the Moldova’s Academy of Sciences, for which it was awarded with the state prize that year, protected tens of thousands residents of the capital. 2 victims, provoked by panic and ignorance to protection rules, have been registered in Chisinau. The head of the Seismology Centre, Ion Ilies, told Info-Prim that earthquakes with magnitudes above 7 on Richter scale, coming from Vrancea mountains happen with a 33 year periodicity and that those of 1986 and 1990 followed the one of 1977, which did not give out the entire accumulated energy - Info-Prim Neo reports.