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| Date | 10 November 1940 3:39 AM (local time) |
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| Magnitude | 7.4 or 7.7 Mw |
| Depth | 133 km |
| Epicenter | Vrancea County, Romania |
| Countries or regions | Romania, Moldova |
| Casualties | 1,000+ dead 4,000 injured |
The 1940 Vrancea earthquake also called as 1940 Bucharest earthquake (Romanian: Cutremurul din 1940) occurred on Sunday, November 10, 1940 in Romania at 03:39 AM local time.
The 1940 earthquake was an earthquake with a magnitude of 7.4 or 7.7 on the Richter scale, with epicenter in Vrancea zone at a depth of about 133 km. It was the first great earthquake of Modern Romania. Ilie Pintilie, a communist leader, was killed when Doftana prison collapsed during the earthquake.
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Its effects were devastating in central and southern Moldavia and Walachia. The number of victims was estimated at 1,000 dead and 4,000 injured, mostly in Moldova. Because the context in which it occurred, the exact number of victims was not known, the information was censored during the war.
The earthquake was felt in Bucharest, where there about 300 people were killed, most of them in the collapse of the Carlton building.[1] The Carlton building, a 14-story structure with reinforced concrete, was the tallest in the city at the time. Many other buildings in Bucharest were considerably damaged[2]. After the earthquake the General Association of Engineers in Romania has undertaken a detailed study of earthquake effects on buildings of reinforced concrete. The main conclusion was that the rules for the calculation of reinforced concrete buildings, basically copied from the Germans, did not take into account possible seismic movement, as Germany is not located in a seismic risk area. New rules were developed which were applied to all buildings constructed in the postwar period.
In Focşani, 100 miles northeast of Bucharest and the epicentre of the quake, was reported in ruins; In Galați, site of the German submarine base, suffered severely; and Giurgiu, principal oil port on the Danube, saw public buildings and factories completely destroyed. In Câmpina, thickly populated oil town, refinery chimneys toppled, houses collapsed, and pipelines burst, dousing the ground with a gummy and inflammable threat. In the heavily guarded Ploieşti, field a few fires broke out, were later reported extinguished.