Planet Earth evolves calmly during a long row of years but suddenly there is a turning point, a year or short time period when Nature becomes restless in a series of natural disasters, before another long calm period returns. The stress these upheavals put on life causes the rate of evolution to increase. 1783 was such a year of natural upheavals. The picture above shows how powerful an earthquake with Magnitude 7 and a Mercalli Intensity of XI can be. The deep ground crack was formed at Monte Sant'Angelo in Calabria, south Italy, by an earthquake that struck 5 February 1783 and killed more than 25,000 people in the Messina area. Four strong aftershocks followed until 28 March, all causing further casualties. Landslides caused tsunamis, epidemics killed several thousands, many starved to death. Liquefaction in the landscape gave birth to >200 lakes, and aftershocks continued all year. Altogether likely more than 80,000 people lost their lives. Four months later, on 8 June 1783 the volcano Lakagigar/Laki in Iceland started the biggest eruption of lava in the northern hemisphere in historical time with severe ecological consequences. All over the globe the nature was in full gallop.
This subregister in my database contains information about earthquakes as recorded through history. The following table shows the size of the register.
| EARTHQUAKES subregister (pages) |
1172 |
| Africa |
38 |
| Algeria |
7 |
| Egypt |
17 |
| Eritrea |
1 |
| Ethiopia |
2 |
| Ghana |
1 |
| Lake Tanganyika |
1 |
| Libya |
2 |
| Morocco |
3 |
| Mozambique |
1 |
| Sudan |
2 |
| Tanzania |
1 |
| America Central-West Indies |
12 |
| America North |
37 |
| Canada |
9 |
| Mexico |
7 |
| USA |
21 |
| America South |
63 |
| Argentina |
12 |
| Bolivia |
2 |
| Brazil |
1 |
| Chile |
25 |
| Ecuador |
1 |
| Peru |
15 |
| Venezuela |
1 |
| Colombia |
1 |
| Arctic-Greenland |
1 |
| Asia |
511 |
| Afghanistan |
34 |
| Andaman Islands |
2 |
| Armenia |
10 |
| Asia general |
1 |
| Azerbaijan |
5 |
| Bangladesh |
3 |
| Bhutan |
1 |
| Burma |
42 |
| Cambodia |
1 |
| China |
62 |
| Georgia |
1 |
| India |
30 |
| Indonesia |
15 |
| Iran |
31 |
| Iraq |
7 |
| Israel and Palestine |
17 |
| Japan |
50 |
| Jordan |
11 |
| Kazakhstan |
1 |
| Korea |
1 |
| Kyrgyzstan |
1 |
| Laos |
6 |
| Lebanon |
15 |
| Mongolia |
2 |
| Near Middle East |
12 |
| Nepal |
4 |
| Nicobar Islands |
5 |
| Oman |
1 |
| Pakistan |
16 |
| Palestine |
9 |
| Philippines |
5 |
| Papua New Guinea |
1 |
| Saudi Arabia |
2 |
| Sri Lanka |
6 |
| Syria |
70 |
| Tajikistan |
1 |
| Thailand |
22 |
| Turkmenistan |
1 |
| Yemen |
1 |
| Vietnam |
6 |
| Atlantic Ocean |
3 |
| Atlantic Ocean |
1 |
| Azore Islands |
1 |
| Canary Islands |
1 |
| Australia |
3 |
| Europe |
481 |
| Albania |
4 |
| Austria |
3 |
| Belgium |
7 |
| Bosnia |
1 |
| Bulgaria |
1 |
| Crete |
1 |
| Croatia |
1 |
| Cyprus |
3 |
| Czechia |
1 |
| Denmark |
10 |
| Finland |
8 |
| France |
21 |
| Germany |
9 |
| Greece |
22 |
| Herzegovina |
1 |
| Hungary |
3 |
| Iceland |
10 |
| Ireland |
1 |
| Italy |
77 |
| Kosovo |
1 |
| Macedonia |
2 |
| Malta |
2 |
| Montenegro |
3 |
| Netherlands |
1 |
| North Sea |
1 |
| Norway |
9 |
| Poland |
2 |
| Portugal |
14 |
| Romania |
10 |
| Russia |
3 |
| Scotland |
1 |
| Serbia |
1 |
| Slovakia |
3 |
| Slovenia |
1 |
| Spain |
11 |
| Sweden |
103 |
| Switzerland |
11 |
| Turkey |
99 |
| United Kingdom |
20 |
| Ukraine |
1 |
| Yugoslavia former |
2 |
| Mediterranean Sea |
23 |
| Chios |
1 |
| Crete |
3 |
| Cyprus |
4 |
| Mediterranean |
18 |
| Rhodes |
1 |
