Erdbeben-Fallstudien
Eingehende Analysen historisch bedeutender Erdbeben — von den geologischen Ursachen bis zu den menschlichen Auswirkungen und den daraus gezogenen Lehren.
Die Türkei-Syrien-Erdbeben 2023: Ein Doppel-Hauptbeben, das 59.000 Menschen tötete
The deadliest earthquake disaster of the 2020s, notable for its unprecedented double mainshock sequence and the subsequent criminal prosecution of contractors for building code violations.
Das Sulawesi-Erdbeben 2018: Blattverschiebungs-Tsunami und katastrophale Bodenverflüssigung in Palu
The earthquake that defied three textbook rules: strike-slip faults generated a destructive tsunami, the rupture propagated at supershear speed, and liquefaction flows traveled 700 meters on nearly flat ground.
Das Mexiko-Stadt-Erdbeben 2017: M7,1 am Jahrestag der Katastrophe von 1985
Striking on the exact 32nd anniversary of the 1985 disaster during a national earthquake drill, the 2017 earthquake served as a live audit of Mexico City's three decades of seismic improvements.
Die Kumamoto-Erdbeben 2016: Ein Doppel-Hauptbeben, das seismische Gefahrenregeln neu schrieb
The earthquake doublet that overturned the assumption that the first large shock is always the mainshock, forcing Japan to revise its public messaging and early warning protocols.
Das Nepal-Erdbeben 2015: Als der Himalaya sich verschob und Kathmandu bebte
The earthquake that demonstrated the Himalayas' ongoing collision in real time, with GPS measurements showing Nepal shifted 3 meters south, while only partially releasing centuries of accumulated tectonic strain.
Das Christchurch-Erdbeben 2011: Wie ein M6,2-Nachbeben ein Stadtzentrum zerstörte
One of the few cases where an aftershock was more devastating than its mainshock, with a M6.2 at just 5 km depth producing 2.2g ground acceleration that obliterated Christchurch's city center.
Das Tohoku-Erdbeben 2011: Wie ein M9,1-Megathrust Japans Dreifachkatastrophe auslöste
The only earthquake in recorded history to trigger a simultaneous earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear disaster, fundamentally changing how nations assess cascading risk.
Das Maule-Erdbeben 2010: Chiles M8,8-Megathrust und die Kraft der Vorbereitung
The clearest modern comparison showing that building codes save lives -- a M8.8 earthquake in Chile killed 525 people while a M7.0 in Haiti (35 days earlier) killed 316,000.
Das Haiti-Erdbeben 2010: Wie eine Magnitude 7,0 316.000 Menschen tötete
The deadliest earthquake relative to magnitude in modern history, demonstrating that building quality and governance -- not earthquake size -- determine whether people live or die.
Das Sichuan-Erdbeben 2008: 87.000 Tote entlang der Longmenshan-Verwerfung
The earthquake that forced China to confront endemic building code violations after thousands of 'tofu-dreg' school buildings collapsed while adjacent government structures survived, killing over 5,000 children.
Das Kaschmir-Erdbeben 2005: 87.000 Tote an der Himalaya-Grenze
The deadliest Himalayan earthquake in modern history, which killed 17,000 students in collapsed schools and demonstrated the extreme difficulty of disaster response in remote mountainous terrain.
Der Tsunami im Indischen Ozean 2004: Die tödlichste Erdbebenkatastrophe des 21. Jahrhunderts
The deadliest tsunami in modern history, killing 227,898 people across 14 countries, whose aftermath created the Indian Ocean Tsunami Warning System and transformed global disaster preparedness.
Das Chi-Chi-Erdbeben 1999: Das am besten aufgezeichnete nahe Verwerfungserdbeben der Geschichte
The best-instrumentally-recorded large earthquake in history, with 441 strong-motion stations capturing near-fault data that fundamentally changed how engineers design buildings close to active faults.
Das Izmit-Erdbeben 1999: Nordanatolischer Verwerfungsbruch im Industrieherz der Türkei
The latest in a remarkable 60-year westward migration of M7+ earthquakes along the North Anatolian Fault, with stress calculations now pointing directly at Istanbul for the next major rupture.
Das Kobe-Erdbeben 1995: Die Katastrophe, die Japans Bauvorschriften transformierte
The earthquake that exposed fatal weaknesses in Japan's pre-1981 building stock, leading to the most sweeping seismic engineering reforms in history and proving that building codes save lives.
Das Northridge-Erdbeben 1994: Amerikas teuerstes seismisches Ereignis
America's most expensive earthquake, which revealed that thousands of modern welded steel moment-frame buildings had suffered hidden brittle fractures in their connections.
Das Loma-Prieta-Erdbeben 1989: Das World-Series-Beben, das Kalifornien aufweckte
America's first live-televised earthquake, broadcast to 62 million World Series viewers, whose Cypress Freeway collapse catalyzed California's seismic retrofit program for elevated highways.
Das Mexiko-Stadt-Erdbeben 1985: Die Resonanzkatastrophe, die Entfernungen trotzte
The definitive case study in site amplification and structural resonance, where lake-bed sediments selectively amplified 2-second seismic waves that destroyed mid-rise buildings 350 km from the epicenter.
Das Tangshan-Erdbeben 1976: Das tödlichste Erdbeben des 20. Jahrhunderts
The deadliest earthquake of the 20th century, which destroyed 93% of an industrial city in seconds and exposed the limitations of earthquake prediction despite China's success at Haicheng one year earlier.
Das Ancash-Erdbeben 1970: Das tödlichste Erdbeben in der südamerikanischen Geschichte
The deadliest earthquake in South American history, where a 50-million-cubic-meter avalanche from Mount Huascaran traveled at 300 km/h to bury the town of Yungay, killing 92% of its population.
Das Große Alaska-Erdbeben 1964: Das zweitstärkste je gemessene Erdbeben (M9,2)
The second-largest earthquake ever recorded and the event whose geological investigation by George Plafker provided critical field evidence for the then-controversial theory of plate tectonics.
Das Valdivia-Erdbeben 1960: Das stärkste je gemessene Erdbeben (M9,5)
The most powerful earthquake ever instrumentally recorded, releasing energy equivalent to 25% of all global seismic energy over a century and generating a tsunami that crossed the entire Pacific Ocean.
Das Assam-Tibet-Erdbeben 1950: Das stärkste kontinentale Erdbeben je gemessen (M8,6)
The largest earthquake ever recorded in a purely continental setting, demonstrating that the Himalayan collision zone can produce M8.6+ earthquakes far from any ocean.
Das Aschgabad-Erdbeben 1948: Die sowjetische Katastrophe, die jahrzehntelang verborgen blieb
The most concealed earthquake disaster in history, where the Soviet government classified the true death toll of 110,000 as a state secret for 40 years.
Das Große Kanto-Erdbeben 1923: Als Feuer Tokio zerstörte
The earthquake that proved fire -- not shaking -- is the primary killer in dense urban areas, with 38,000 people perishing in a single fire tornado.
Das Ecuador-Kolumbien-Erdbeben 1906: Der M8,8-Megathrust, der die Nordanden-Gefährdung definierte
The earthquake that established the segmented rupture model for subduction zones, as its 500 km rupture was partially re-ruptured in three subsequent earthquakes -- a textbook case of megathrust supercycles.
Das San-Francisco-Erdbeben 1906: Die Katastrophe, die die moderne Seismologie begründete
The earthquake that founded modern seismology -- H.F. Reid's analysis of the 1906 rupture produced the elastic rebound theory, the fundamental explanation of why earthquakes occur.
Das Arica-Erdbeben 1868: Der M9,0-Megathrust, der Tsunamis über den Pazifik schickte
One of the most powerful earthquakes before the instrumental era, whose Pacific-wide tsunami carried warships half a kilometer inland and provided crucial calibration data for modern megathrust hazard models.
Das Lissabon-Erdbeben 1755: Die Katastrophe, die die Aufklärung erschütterte
The earthquake that launched both seismology as a science and modern emergency management, while simultaneously triggering a philosophical revolution.
Das Shaanxi-Erdbeben 1556: Das tödlichste Erdbeben in der Menschheitsgeschichte (830.000 Tote)
The deadliest earthquake in human history, killing 830,000 people -- primarily because the population lived in cave dwellings carved into loess cliffs that collapsed en masse during the shaking.