1927 earthquake in Palestine

1927 earthquake in Palestine

Date July 11, 1927 (1927-07-11)
Magnitude 6.2 to 6.25 on the Richter scale
Epicenter North of the Dead Sea
Countries or regions Palestine and Transjordan
Total damage Serious damage to Jericho, Ramle, Tiberias, Nablus and Jerusalem
Casualties At least 500

The 1927 earthquake in Palestine was a devastating earthquake that shook the Palestine and Transjordan regions on July 11, 1927 at circa 16:00 local time. The epicenter of the earthquake was in the northern area of the Dead Sea. The cities of Jerusalem, Jericho, Ramle, Tiberias and Nablus were heavily damaged and At least 500 were estimated to have been killed.[1]

Contents

Damage and casualties

Jerusalem

The death toll in Jerusalem included more than 130 people and around 450 were injured. About 300 houses collapsed or were severely damaged to the point of not being usable.

The earthquake also caused heavy damage to the domes of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and the al-Aqsa Mosque.

The rest of the Palestine region

The earthquake was especially severe in Nablus where it destroyed circa 300 buildings, including the Mosque of Victory and the historic parts of the Great Mosque of Nablus.[2] The death toll in Nablus included more than 150 people and around 250 were injured.

In Jericho, a number of houses collapsed, including several relatively new hotels. In addition, the Allenby Bridge collapsed and the Jordan river was blocked for about 21 hours following the collapse of the Marl cliffs in its banks.

Ramla and Tiberias were also heavily damaged.

The Transjordan region

The most affected city in the Transjordan region was Salt in which 80 people were killed, in the rest of the Transjordan region another 20 were killed by the earthquake.

Earthquake epicenter

Vered and Striem (1977) located the earthquake epicenter to be near the Damya Bridge in the Jordan Valley, and close to the city of Jericho.[3] Later research by Avni (1999), located the epicenter to be around 50 km south of this location near the Dead Sea at .[4]

References

  1. ^ A Revised Earthquake Catalog of Palestine
  2. ^ [1]
  3. ^ Damage Caused By Landslides During the Earthquakes of 1837 and 1927 in the Galilee Region, By D. Wachs and D. Levitte, MINISTRY OF ENERGY AND INFRASTRUCTURE, Report HYDRO/5/78 - Jerusalem - June 1978 [2]
  4. ^ A new estimate for the epicenter of the Jericho earthquake of 11 July 1927