1927 Jericho earthquake

Earthquake in Mandatory Palestine and Transjordan From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The 1927 Jericho earthquake was a devastating event that shook Mandatory Palestine and Transjordan on July 11 at 15:04 local time. The epicenter of the earthquake was in the northern area of the Dead Sea. The cities of Jerusalem, Jericho, Ramla, Tiberias, and Nablus were heavily damaged, and between 285[7] and 400[8] people were estimated to have been killed.[9]

UTCtime1927-07-11 13:04:10
LocaldateJuly 11, 1927 (1927-07-11)
Quick facts UTC time, ISC event ...
1927 Jericho earthquake
1927 Jericho earthquake is located in Israel
1927 Jericho earthquake
Jerusalem
Jerusalem
Nablus
Nablus
Tiberias
Tiberias
UTC time1927-07-11 13:04:10
ISC event909378
USGS-ANSSComCat
Local dateJuly 11, 1927 (1927-07-11)
Local time15:04:10[1]
Magnitude6.3 Mw[2]
Depth15 km (9.3 mi)[2]
Epicenter31.6°N 35.4°E / 31.6; 35.4
Areas affectedMandatory Palestine
Transjordan
Total damageSerious damage to Jericho, Ramla, Tiberias, Nablus and Jerusalem
Max. intensityMSK-64 IX (Destructive) [3][4]
MMI IX (Violent)[5]
Casualties285–500[1][6]
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Earthquake

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.[10] Later research by Avni (1999), located the epicenter to be around 50 km south of this location in the northern part of the Dead Sea.[11] The latter was approved by Zohar & Marco (2012) and by Zohar at al., 2014.

Effects

Mandatory Palestine

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 country

The earthquake was especially severe in Nablus where it destroyed around 300 buildings, including the Mosque of Victory and the historic parts of the Great Mosque of Nablus.[10] 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 one of the hotels, three female tourists from India were killed.[12] Ramla and Tiberias were also heavily damaged.

Emirate of Transjordan

The most affected city in Transjordan was Salt in which 80 people were killed. In the rest of Transjordan another 20 people were killed.

See also

Notes and references

Further reading

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