Secret earthquake in the USSR and 30 thousand dead

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

A strong earthquake hit Tajikistan 70 years ago. Landslides that came down as a result of the cataclysm covered more than 30 settlements and buried about 30 thousand people alive.

On July 10, 1949, a strong earthquake with a magnitude of 7.5 on the Richter scale occurred in the vicinity of the large village of Khait in the Tajik SSR. Its source was located at a depth of about 20 km. Tremors were felt in this area two days earlier, after which the showers fell. As a result, the loose soil on the mountain slopes became saturated with water. This provoked a landslide and led to tragic consequences.

Due to foreshocks - "small" earthquakes that occurred before the main one - a landslide occurred in the Yasman River valley. Collapsed 2.5 million cubic meters of loose soil. Landslides and rockfalls were recorded along the northern slope of the Takhta ridge towards the Surkhob River. The Garm-Khait highway was filled up. Small landslides took place in the valleys of the Yarkhich and Obi Kabud rivers. In the Jirgatal region, cracks began to appear in the buildings. There have been cases of falling out of the corners of buildings. In the upper reaches of the Khait Gorge, a seismic shock along a vertical crack broke off a part of the granite dome.

As a result, a huge mass of rocks and loess fell into the valley - a loose sedimentary rock of a light yellow color.

According to scientists, the Khait earthquake, in addition to the appearance of massive landslides and landslides, caused the formation of ground flows - "earth avalanches", which are intermediate between landslides and mudslides. This happened because there were three dammed lakes in the Obi-Dara-Khauz gorge: one in the upper reaches of the gorge, with an area of 350 thousand square meters, and two small shallow lakes.

The earthquake first hit on 8 July. There were victims, but they were few. On July 10, the earthquake was repeated, but with a force several times greater. The noise, rumble and rattle were complemented by a hurricane wind, from which the trees bent their crowns to the ground, broke, and most of them were uprooted. Hundreds of people died in those few minutes. And a little later, stones, trees and earth, mixed with river water into a viscous porridge, covered Khait.

Eshoni Davlatkhuja

survivor witness to the tragedy

In addition to Khait, almost all buildings were destroyed in 23 settlements. At the epicenter, the strength of the earthquake reached 9-10 points. The shocks were felt so much that people could not stand on their feet and fell.

The memoirs of another eyewitness are given in Batyr Karryev's book "Disasters in Nature: Earthquakes":

There was a sudden vertical jolt accompanied by a hum. In an instant, all the buildings in Hait collapsed. Dust rose from landslides from the mountains, the whole area was clouded with haze, immediately darkened. The car, which was on the way from Hait to Sairone, was thrown up, and the passengers were thrown from the body to the side on the move. The U-2 plane that had just landed was thrown and wobbled.

Tajik sources also cite other evidence from which it follows that on the eve of the tragedy, an alarming situation was created by the unusual behavior of animals. Roosters sang loudly and often, dogs ran for no reason from place to place and howled, cats rushed and meowed, donkeys screamed almost incessantly, and pigeons flew in the night sky. According to eyewitnesses, the sensation of vibrations in the ground was like pulling a carpet from under your feet.

“The area is covered with haze,” notes Karryev.- Against the background of the continuing vibration of the soil and the incessant hum, an additional sound appeared, similar to the grinding of stones against each other, which seemed to be coming from afar. It grew rapidly. In a few moments, a dark-colored mass with a height of 100-150 meters arose, rapidly moving to the village of Khait from the side of the Obi-Dara-Khauz gorge. This conglomerate of stones, water and mud fell on the sleeping Khait, burying 25 thousand people alive beneath it. On the site of the village, a blockage, one wide and about 20 km long, was formed. The total number of buried sites was 33”.

Here is how the central newspaper of the republic "Communist of Tajikistan" wrote about the earthquake in its July 15, 1949 issue:

“During July 8 and 10, Tajikistan experienced two strong earthquakes with an epicenter in the mountains at a distance of 190 kilometers northeast of the city of Stalinabad. Several aftershocks were observed in Stalinabad. The strongest, with a strength of 6.5 points, was felt on July 10 at 9 hours 43 minutes 11 seconds local time. There was no destruction in the city. Repeated, weaker tremors, as is usually the case after earthquakes, continued for several days. On July 12, the tremors were much weaker than on July 11. On July 13 and 14, further attenuation of the shocks was noted."

Moscow responded quickly enough to what happened in Tajikistan.

To help the victims from the neighboring Central Asian republics, air ambulances were transferred. In addition, Academician Grigory Gamburtsev was sent to the place of events, who was instructed to create a complex seismological expedition of the Institute of Physics of the Earth of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR. Until the collapse of the USSR, the Garm geodynamic testing ground worked in Tajikistan. 15 seismic stations operated on its territory. Many residents from the affected area were relocated to the Vakhsh valley.