Messinian earthquake occurred December 29, 1908.Soon, the whole world was shaken tragic news of the terrible events.Two Italian city of Messina and Reggio Calabria, in a short time turned into ruins.Tens of thousands of people were buried under the rubble of collapsed buildings.Because of the disaster changed even the outlines of the coasts and topography of the coastal seabed.Interestingly, the most complete description of the disaster amounted to Maxim Gorky, who at that time was just in Italy, and the Polish geologist KI Bogdanovich
fateful morning
Messinian earthquake in 1908 suddenly began early in the morning at 05.30 local time,when the residents of the city still had dreams in their beds.Many of them and was not to wake up.According to geologists, the magnitude of the shocks was as much as 7.5 points.The first strike lasted only 10 seconds, but it was enough to make the blooming Italian cities in ruins.The rout was completed the following two jerks.Messinian earthquake also triggered a tsunami that an interval of 20 minutes fell upon the city and caused the final touches on the horrible picture of what was turned Coast.As they reached the height of three meters.Weak seismic activity continued for several days until 1909.Earthquake in Italy in 1908 claimed the lives of 80 to 100 thousand people.The exact figure is not known until today.In particular, the 150-thousand population of Messina under the rubble forever remained about 60 thousand people.
Rescue survivors
first on the scene turned out to be Russian sailors, is located near the island of Sicily on shooting practice.Learning about what happened Messinian earthquake commander gave the crew immediately sent to the scene of the tragedy.On the way to the destruction of the city went to work preparing simultaneous rescue: rescue teams were formed, built reception centers for the victims of the ship's infirmary potentially prepared the necessary materials such as bandages and medicines.Already in the morning the ships arrived to the scene, where he began active work on clearing the rubble and rescue the buried people under them.Excavations were a danger to themselves rescuers, since Messinian earthquake that time has made itself felt, the seismic activity continued, reminding himself tremors and the threat of new landslides.And a few sailors still found their death here.Rescue teams changed each other every six hours.According to official statistics sailors rescued more than two thousand people, clearing debris and removing the bodies of people who were on the verge of death.In the following days to the shores of the city began to be approached with care and ships of other states.Until today, residents cherish the memory of this feat.In particular, in the city of monuments to the rescue, and several streets have a typical name in honor of Russian sailors.
