1944 San Juan earthquake

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The 1944 San Juan earthquake was a seismic movement that took place in the province of San Juan, Argentina. The strong earthquake (estimated magnitude 7.8 in the Richter scale) destroyed a large part of the provincial capital San Juan and killed 10,000 of its inhabitants, 10% of its population at the time. It is acknowledged as the largest natural disaster in Argentine history. The center-west area of Argentina is the one most prone to seismic events.

The earthquake started at 08:52 PM on 15 January 1944. Its epicenter was located 30 km north of the provincial capital, near La Laja, Albardón Department. It destroyed 90% of the buildings in the city; the ones still standing suffered such damage that in most cases they had to be torn down. It is considered that the reason for such widespread destruction was the low quality of the constructions, rather than just the power of the earthquake.

In 1944 many of San Juan's houses were made of adobe. The reconstruction prompted the creation of a Building Code and was done respecting modern knowledge of earthquake and architectural tendencies: resistant brick and concrete one-story houses, wider sidewalks and streets.

[edit] Aid and reconstruction

There was some debate as to whether it should be more advisable to rebuild the city in the same place, or take advantage of the situation to move it to a less dangerous location. The former alternative won.

At the start of the reconstruction, emergency homes were built for the population with funds of the national state. This was the first state-directed massive construction plan in Argentina. The first stages of the process were done under Peronist rule. Curiously, Colonel Juan Perón, then to become president, had met his wife Eva Duarte (Evita), in a fundraiser to help the victims. After the 1955 coup d'état ousted Perón, the reconstruction was continued under the de facto President Pedro Eugenio Aramburu.

The earthquake caused many families to scatter in the confusion, and left many orphaned children. According to historian Mark Healey, the social issues derived from these orphans (around 1,000) had a profound influence in the shaping of the family legislation dictated during Perón's first term, two years later.

[edit] The modern city

As of 2006, San Juan has a population of around 400,000, and 63% of its approximately 90,000 homes, and 100% of its public institutional buildings, were built under seismic safety regulations. This however leaves more than a third of non-seismic-resistant houses.

A study on seismic vulnerability, conducted by the National University of San Juan in 2005, showed that 28% of the peripheric neighborhoods present medium risk, and 20% of the city can be classified as high or very high vulnerability.