Karakore

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Karakore
Karakore Location within Ethiopia
Coordinates: 10°29′N 39°56′E / 10.483, 39.933
Country	Ethiopia
Region	Amhara
Zone	Semien (North) Shewa
Elevation	1,696 m (5,564 ft)
Population (2005)
- Total	7,487
Time zone	EAT (UTC+3)

Karakore (sometimes spelled as two words, Kara Kore) is a town in northeastern Ethiopia. Located in the Semien Shewa Zone of the Amhara Region, this town has a latitude and longitude of 10°29′N, 39°56′E with an elevation of 1696 meters above sea level.

Based on figures from the Central Statistical Agency in 2005, Karakore has an estimated total population of 7,487 of whom 3,795 were males and 3,692 were females.^[1] The 1994 census reported this town had a total population of 4,311 of whom 1,997 were males and 2,314 were females. It is one of three towns in Efratana Gidim woreda.

Passing through the settlement on the main north-south highway in the 1940s, David Buxton described the town as lying to the east of the escarpment of the Ethiopian highlands, and "a district notorious for armed hold-ups on the road."^[2]

Karakore was the epicenter of a 1961 earthquake swarm, considered one of the most destructive earthquakes in 20th century Ethiopia. Damage was reported as far as 250 km from the town. The focal depth of the Karakore quakes reached 57 kilometers below the surface, which was a large depth for Ethiopia where earthquakes are generally classified as shallow. The main shock struck 1 June with a magnitude 6.7 on the Richter scale, causing damage up to 250 kilometers from the epicenter. While 45% of the houses in Karakore collapsed and 17 kilometers of the highway north of the town were damaged by landslides and fissures, the nearby town of Majete in Antsokiyana Gemza woreda was destroyed and 5,000 inhabitants in both woredas were left homeless. Fatalities were minimal, due to the action of Sergeant Haile Mariam Wolde Maskal at the Karakore police station, who had evacuated the inhabitants by midnight of 1 June.^[3]

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