1963 Skopje earthquake
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| Date | July 26, 1963 |
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| Magnitude | 6.1 Mw |
| Depth | 6 kilometres (4 mi)[1] |
| Epicenter | 42°10′N 22°40′E / 42.16°N 22.66°E[1][2] |
| Countries or regions | Yugoslavia (mainly present-day Republic of Macedonia) |
| Casualties | |
The 1963 Skopje earthquake (Macedonian: Скопски земјотрес 1963, transliterated Skopski zemjotres 1963) was an 6.1 moment magnitude earthquake which occurred in Skopje, SR Macedonia (present-day Republic of Macedonia) then part of the SFR Yugoslavia, on July 26, 1963 which killed over 1,070 people, injured between 3,000[4] and 4,000[5] and left more than 200,000 people homeless.[3] About 80 percent of the city was destroyed.[3]
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[edit] Facts
The earthquake, which measured 6.1 on the moment magnitude scale[1] (equivalent to 6.9 on the Richter scale),[6][7] occurred on July 26, 1963 at 4:17 am UTC[2] (5:17 am local time)[3][6] in Skopje, Socialist Republic of Macedonia, then part of SFR Yugoslavia (present-day Republic of Macedonia). The tremor lasted for 20 seconds[6][7] and was felt mostly along the Vardar River Valley.[7] There were also smaller aftershocks until 5:43.[8]
[edit] Aftermath
Within days after the earthquake took place, 35 nations requested that the United Nations General Assembly place relief for Skopje on their list of agendas. Relief, in the form of money, medical, engineering and building teams and supplies was offered from 78 countries.[3] For example, UK-based engineer Demetrius Comino provided Dexion building frame materials to enable 49 Royal Engineers to build 1560 dwellings, enough for two complete villages, one of which was nicknamed Dexiongrad.[9][10]
The famous artist Pablo Picasso donated his painting Head of a Woman (1963), which was exhibited in the new post-earthquake Museum of Contemporary Art[1] [2] [3] in Skopje.
In 1965, Kenzo Tange was asked by the United Nations to enter a limited competition for the redevelopment of Skopje, after which Tange won 60% of the prize while the Yugoslav team won the remaining 40%. However, Tange's plan for Skopje (one of his major works) remains partly implemented, namely the New Skopje Railway Station and the so-called City Wall.
[edit] Quotes
Following the earthquake, Josip Broz Tito, then-president of Yugoslavia, sent a message of condolences to the Socialist Republic of Macedonia:
| “ | Together with all the peoples of Yugoslavia we will endeavour to mitigate the misfortune that has befallen your republic. | ” |
Alberto Moravia, one of the leading Italian novelists:
| “ | Skopje must not remain merely a newspaper report of its first sufferings, but must be the responsibility of all of us, of all men who today or tomorrow, through some similar new catastrophe, may become Skopians. | ” |
Jean-Paul Sartre, one of the leading figures of the French philosophy and literature:
| “ | Skopje is not a film, not a thriller where we guess the chief event. It is a concentration of man’s struggle for freedom, with a result which inspires further struggles and no acceptance of defeat. | ” |
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[edit] Gallery
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Symbol of the earthquake: The Old Railway Station in Skopje. The clock stopped at 5.17 on July 26, 1963. Today the building is used by the Museum of the City of Skopje (Muzej na grad Skopje).
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Monument dedicated to the victims of the earthquake, near the Old Railway Station
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New settlements in Skopje donated by: USA, UK, West Germany, Mexico, the Scandinavian countries, Switzerland, ČSSR, Poland, the World Council of Churches etc.
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Charity concert by Henryk Szeryng for the victims of the Skopje earthquake, Reims, France, November 26, 1963
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Newspaper clips: Help for the citizens of Skopje from Roosendaal, Netherlands, August 8, 1963
[edit] See also
- List of earthquakes
- History of the Republic of Macedonia
- Skoplje '63, a 1964 documentary about the earthquake
- Social Vulnerability to Natural Disasters: A Study of Skopje, Macedonia
[edit] References
- ^ a b c d Seismic Ground Motion Estimates for the M6.1 earthquake of July 26, 1963 at Skopje, Republic of Macedonia Department of Earth Sciences, University of Trieste, Trieste, Italy
- ^ a b 1963 Skopje (Macedonia) Earthquake SeismoArchives, Incorporated Research Institutions for Seismology
- ^ a b c d e f Marking the 44th anniversary of the catastrophic 1963 Skopje earthquake MRT, Thursday, 26 July 2007
- ^ a b MIA 'claimed the lives of 1.070 people, while 3.000 were injured'
- ^ a b Makfax 'загинаа 1070 луѓе, а околу 4.000 беа повредени'
- ^ a b c d The 1963 earthquake in Skopje In Your Pocket City Guides
- ^ a b c d On This Day: 26 July; 1963: Thousands killed in Yugoslav earthquake BBC
- ^ Vecer online Болката и сеќавањата остануваат засекогаш
- ^ The New Yorker, Oct 17, 1964
- ^ Davis Ian (1977) "Emergency Shelters", Disasters: the international journal of disaster relief, vol 1, no 1, p.27
[edit] External links
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to: 1963 Skopje earthquake |
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