See rare photos from the devastating 6.5 Richter earthquake that shook Thessaloniki in 1978
Exactly 45 years today since the day of the murderous Enceladus who “froze” Thessaloniki.
At 23:05 on June 20, 1978, the city was rocked by a powerful earthquake measuring 6.5 on the Richter scale, centered 35 km E-NE of Thessaloniki, in the village of Prophetis on Lake Volvi.
Only 15 seconds were enough to mark the history of the city in black, with tragic toll 49 dead, 220 injured and thousands homeless.
It was the first strong earthquake to occur in a large urban center with exceptional economic and social consequences and was the reason for the anti-seismic shielding of the country. Apart from the city of Thessaloniki, great damage was caused in the prefectures of Thessaloniki, Kilkis, Serres and Halkidiki.
Serious damage was recorded in historical places of the city such as the Rotunda, the church of Agia Sophia and the Church of Handcrafted, culminating in the collapse of an apartment building in Hippodrome Square, from where most of the dead were. In contrast to the city of Thessaloniki, the damage at the epicenter near the Volvi and Lagada lakes, was rather moderate for an earthquake of magnitude 6.5.
In total the material damages exceeded one billion euros at today’s prices. Specifically, 9,480 buildings suffered irreparable damage (3,170 in Thessaloniki, including 35 schools), 23,589 more serious damages (13,918) and 67,541 smaller ones (49,071 in Thessaloniki). Equally important were the damages suffered by the Byzantine monuments of the city, for which until then no measures had been taken regarding their maintenance and protection from seismic activity. Specifically, they had to be maintained since the liberation of Thessaloniki in 1912.
Three main surface fault lines were revealed in the focal area. The first with a SE-NW direction (128′) and a length of about 8 km was found between the villages of Stivos – Scholari – Evangelismos in quaternary sedimentary deposits. The second rupture of the fault had a general E-W direction (75′ to 100′) and a visible length of about 12 km, and was located along the villages of Peristeronas – Stivos – Nikomidinos – Lagakia – Gerakarou. This fault line appeared mainly in recent sedimentary deposits (Neogene and Quaternary). The third fault line was located between the two aforementioned lines in the alluvial deposits of the valley in the direction from Stivos village to the east of the shore of Lake Lagada with a direction NW-SE (110′) in a length of about 5 km.
The strong seismic acceleration of the Thessaloniki earthquake in 1978 was recorded by an analog accelerometer, the only one until then, installed in the historical center of the city of Thessaloniki (City Hotel).
This instrument was installed by the current professor emeritus of the Department of Civil Engineering of NTUA, Panagiotis Karydis. It was the first significant recording of ground acceleration in the Greek area that could be related to the damage in old and modern structures of a large urban center, such as Thessaloniki, a fact which is of great importance for the interpretation of damage to buildings and infrastructures, but also for the design of new, modern earthquake resistant structures.
Immediately after the earthquake, the state woke up and made strenuous efforts to heal the wounds. The material damages were remedied relatively soon by the special taxation imposed by the government of Constantinos Karamanlis. The rehabilitation of the earthquake victims was undertaken by the newly established “Northern Greece Earthquake Rehabilitation Service” (YASBE), which was the model for the subsequent Earthquake Rehabilitation Service. Konstantinos Karamanlis himself was forced to spend three days in Thessaloniki to entertain the rumours, which spoke of new catastrophic earthquakes.
On the occasion of the Thessaloniki earthquake and the subsequent one in Athens (1981), the OASP (Organization for Earthquake Planning and Protection) was founded in 1983, which is the competent body of the state for the planning of the country’s earthquake policy.
Source: Skai
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