A series of earthquakes struck

Banja Luka Banja Luka ( sr-Cyrl, Бања Лука, ) or Banjaluka ( sr-Cyrl, Бањалука, ) is the second largest city in Bosnia and Herzegovina and the largest city of Republika Srpska. Banja Luka is also the ''de facto'' capital of this entity. I ...

on October 26 and 27, 1969. The earthquakes began with an unusually strong tremor on the night of October 26 at 02:55. Foreshocks commenced several hours later and small tremors continued until 08:53. The mainshock occurred at 16:36. The hypocenter was below the city with a

moment magnitude The moment magnitude scale (MMS; denoted explicitly with or Mw, and generally implied with use of a single M for magnitude) is a measure of an earthquake's magnitude ("size" or strength) based on its seismic moment. It was defined in a 1979 pape ...

of 6.1 maximum

Mercalli intensity The Modified Mercalli intensity scale (MM, MMI, or MCS), developed from Giuseppe Mercalli's Mercalli intensity scale of 1902, is a seismic intensity scale used for measuring the intensity of shaking produced by an earthquake. It measures the eff ...

of VIII (''Severe''). The earthquake was followed by a 6.1 magnitude a day later. It was categorized as a

doublet earthquake __NOTOC__ In seismology, doublet earthquakes – and more generally, multiplet earthquakes – were originally identified as multiple earthquakes with nearly identical waveforms originating from the same location. They are now characterized as sing ...

Damage

Material damage was widespread; 86,000 apartments were completely destroyed. Great damage was inflicted on school (266), cultural (146), health (133), social and public administration facilities (152). The economy suffered significant losses. In the following years, all companies worked with significantly reduced capacities, and some completely stopped production. The buses were driven by primary and secondary school students from Banja Luka, who had just finished the school year in various parts of

Yugoslavia Yugoslavia (; sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Jugoslavija, Југославија ; sl, Jugoslavija ; mk, Југославија ;; rup, Iugoslavia; hu, Jugoszlávia; rue, label=Pannonian Rusyn, Югославия, translit=Juhoslavija ...

. Reconstruction and rehabilitation of devastated buildings soon began, the city's infrastructure was restored and rapid urbanization began. By the end of the earthquake, 15 people from Banja Luka were confirmed dead, and 1,117 people were injured.

Damage

See also

References

Further reading