October 26, 1802 Earthquake: Carpathian Fold,vrancea, Romania
A magnitude 7.4 earthquake struck Carpathian Fold,vrancea, Romania on October 26, 1802 at 10:55:00 UTC, 150 km below the surface. It caused a tsunami.
Map
Where it struck, with the other significant earthquakes within 200 km. Circles are sized and colored by magnitude; select one for its page.
The earthquake
- Date
- October 26, 1802
- Time
- 10:55:00 UTC
- Place
- Carpathian Fold,vrancea, Romania
- Magnitude
- 7.4
- Focal depth
- 150 km (93 mi)
- Intensity
- 10 on the Modified Mercalli scale
- Tsunami
- Yes: the tsunami it caused
- Epicenter
- 45.700° N, 26.600° E
- Country
- Romania
The toll
- Damage
- Moderate (about $1 to $5 million)
- Houses damaged
- Some (about 51 to 100)
Where the literature gives no number, NCEI records a description on a scale of 1 to 4, printed here in its words. Damage is in millions of US dollars of the year of the event, not adjusted for inflation.
What the record says
NCEI’s account, from the sources it cites.
1802 Oct 26 (reference #497)
1802 Oct 26 Austria, Hungary, Russie, and Turkey, Bucharest, Constantinople (Pera), Transylvania, Wallachia, Moldavia, Hermannstadt, Temeswar, Lemberg, Kief, Aral, Tula, Moscow and St. Petersburg (reference #1055)
1802 Oct 26, 10:55 UTC, 45.7 N 26.6 E, magnitude 7.4 (reference #223)
1802 Oct 26, 10:55 UTC, 45.8 N 26.6 E, magnitude 7.1. Many buildings largely damaged in Bucuresti, sulphur water flowed from cracks in the ground, houses damaged and walls of churches fissured at Craiova, Iagi, Vidin, Ruse, Chernovtsy, Varna, Brasov, Sibiu, felt at Istanbul. Widely felt in the Balkans and in Ukraina (MMC, PRA, FA, WS), allegedly also in Moscow, Peterburg (Leningrad), Tula, Kaluga, Orel (PAD, MJD). (reference #1099)
1802 Oct 12, magnitude 7.7. This was a large, intermediate-depth earthquake of an estimated magnitude of 7.7 occurring at the Vrancea seismic source, Romania (Constantinescu and Marza, 1989; we adopted focal parameters estimated by them). The earthquake was perceptible at very long distances, from St. Petersburg to the north, to Ithaki island in Ionian Sea to the south, but it was highly destructive in Bucharest (von Hoff, 1841; Mallet, 1855). The very long radius of perceptibility is a common feature of the intermediate-depth earthquakes of Vrancea as well as those of the Hellenic arc and elsewhere. (reference #9391)
Other significant earthquakes nearby
Within 200 km, the deadliest first.
- March 4, 1977, Bucharest, Romania
- November 10, 1940, Romania
- January 23, 1838, Carpathian Fold,vrancea, Romania
- May 30, 1990, Bucharest, Braila, Brasov, Romania
- August 30, 1986, Bucharest, Kishinev-Kagul, Romania
- November 24, 1516, Romania
- November 17, 1821, Romania, Moldova
- October 27, 2004, Northern, Bucharest, Braila, Bulgaria, Romania
- May 31, 1990, Kishinev, Cis, Romania
- November 26, 1829, Bucharest, Romania
More
Significant earthquakes of 1802The 1800sRecent earthquakes near hereThis day in weather history
Sources
Significant earthquakes from NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information, Global Historical Hazard Database, cited as NCEI/WDS, doi:10.7289/V5PN93H7. Public domain. Read 2026-09-24. NCEI earthquake 1558.