EarthQuake

 Bam was Iran’s ancient city, over 2,000 years old, and home to 90,000 people in 2003. When it was struck by a 6.6 magnitude earthquake that year, 70% of the Bam Citadel: the largest adobe structure in the world, as well as most of the city, was destroyed.

The Great Hanshin Earthquake, as it’s properly called, lasted 20 seconds and was a 7.3 on the Richter scale in 1995: an intense burst at the juncture of three tectonic plates, which caused 200 Billion USD in damage, and left nearly 7,000 people dead. It was, and still is, the costliest natural disaster to strike any one nation.

The earthquake that almost destroyed Guatemala City in 1976 actually took place some 160 km away, but was so strong that it still leveled many of the outlying areas, like the cathedral below. A 7.5 magnitude quake, was followed by thousands of aftershocks, many of which caused their own damage and fatalities.

1906 quake that took place in San Francisco with a magnitude that’s been projected as high as 8.3. This was the Hurricane Katrina of its day, simply removing an American city from the map for a few years while it rebuilt itself out of absolute ruin. The shock of the initial quake was soon replaced by fires sweeping the city, and then looters. As the Army was called to respond, some soldiers even participated in the “liberation” of goods.