Hazard Assessment and Site-Dependent Response for Vrancea Earthquakes

The Vrancea region is the source of subcrustal (60–170km) seismic activity which affects more than 2/3 of the territory of Romania, important parts of the territory of Republic of Moldova and small areas in Bulgaria and Ukraine. The Vrancea source induces a high seismic risk in the densely built zones of the South-east of Romania. On March 4, 1977, during the most severe Vrancea earthquake of this century, in the city of Bucharest more than 1570 casualties were registered, 11300 persons were injured, 35000 families lost their houses and 32 reinforced concrete multi-storey buildings completely collapsed.