The 1992 Cairo earthquake, also known as the Dahshur earthquake, occurred at 15:09 local time (13:09
UTC
Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) is the primary time standard globally used to regulate clocks and time. It establishes a reference for the current time, forming the basis for civil time and time zones. UTC facilitates international communica ...
) on 12 October, with an
epicenter
The epicenter (), epicentre, or epicentrum in seismology is the point on the Earth's surface directly above a hypocenter or focus, the point where an earthquake or an underground explosion originates.
Determination
The primary purpose of a ...
in the
Western Desert
In Egypt, the Western Desert is an area of the Sahara that lies west of the river Nile, up to the Libyan border, and south from the Mediterranean Sea to the border with Sudan. It is named in contrast to the Eastern Desert which extends east fro ...
near
Dahshur
DahshurAlso transliterated ''Dahshour'' (in English often called ''Dashur''; ' ) is an ancient Egyptian pyramid complex and necropolis and shares the name of the nearby village of Manshiyyat Dahshur () in markaz Badrashin, Giza Governorate, Giza ...
,
Giza
Giza (; sometimes spelled ''Gizah, Gizeh, Geeza, Jiza''; , , ' ) is the third-largest city in Egypt by area after Cairo and Alexandria; and fourth-largest city in Africa by population after Kinshasa, Lagos, and Cairo. It is the capital of ...
, south of
Egypt
Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...
's capital city,
Cairo
Cairo ( ; , ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Egypt and the Cairo Governorate, being home to more than 10 million people. It is also part of the List of urban agglomerations in Africa, largest urban agglomeration in Africa, L ...
. The
earthquake
An earthquakealso called a quake, tremor, or tembloris the shaking of the Earth's surface resulting from a sudden release of energy in the lithosphere that creates seismic waves. Earthquakes can range in intensity, from those so weak they ...
had a
magnitude
Magnitude may refer to:
Mathematics
*Euclidean vector, a quantity defined by both its magnitude and its direction
*Magnitude (mathematics), the relative size of an object
*Norm (mathematics), a term for the size or length of a vector
*Order of ...
of either 5.8
or 5.9,
but was unusually destructive for its size, causing 561 deaths and injuring 12,392 people. It also made "over half a million people homeless", destroying or significantly damaging "129,000 residential buildings and houses" in tens of cities and villages across 16 governorates, in
Greater Cairo
The Greater Cairo () is a metropolitan area centered around Cairo, Egypt. It comprises the entirety of the Cairo Governorate, the cities of Imbaba and Giza in the Giza Governorate, and the city Shubra El Kheima in Qalyubia Governorate. Its def ...
, the
Delta
Delta commonly refers to:
* Delta (letter) (Δ or δ), the fourth letter of the Greek alphabet
* D (NATO phonetic alphabet: "Delta"), the fourth letter in the Latin alphabet
* River delta, at a river mouth
* Delta Air Lines, a major US carrier ...
, and northern
Upper Egypt
Upper Egypt ( ', shortened to , , locally: ) is the southern portion of Egypt and is composed of the Nile River valley south of the delta and the 30th parallel North. It thus consists of the entire Nile River valley from Cairo south to Lake N ...
.
It was the most damaging seismic event to affect Egypt since 1847.
Geology
Cairo sits within a diffuse zone of
faulting
In geology, a fault is a planar fracture or discontinuity in a volume of rock across which there has been significant displacement as a result of rock-mass movements. Large faults within Earth's crust result from the action of plate tectonic ...
that transfers extension from the
Gulf of Suez Rift to the Manzala rift beneath the
Nile delta
The Nile Delta (, or simply , ) is the River delta, delta formed in Lower Egypt where the Nile River spreads out and drains into the Mediterranean Sea. It is one of the world's larger deltas—from Alexandria in the west to Port Said in the eas ...
.
Damage
More than 129,000 residential buildings and houses were affected by the earthquake across 17 of Egypt’s 27 governorates, disproportionately affecting heavily populated governorates near to the epicentre, with Giza, where the epicentre was, seeing over two fifths of the damage.
Over 12,000 residential buildings and houses (12%) collapsed or were so heavily damaged, they were identified to be demolished, while a further 28,000 buildings (25%), required significant repairs or partial demolition (usually of a floor or more), and the remaining two thirds were found to need minor repair.
Some 216 mosques and 350 schools were badly damaged.
Around 40,000 of the affected buildings were in the capital, Cairo, representing over one third of all buildings.
The areas of greatest damage were in the historic neighbourhoods of
Historic Cairo
Islamic Cairo (), or Medieval Cairo, officially Historic Cairo (القاهرة التاريخية ''al-Qāhira tārīkhiyya''), refers mostly to the areas of Cairo, Egypt, that were built from the Muslim conquest of Egypt, Muslim conquest in 641 C ...
,
Old Cairo
Old Cairo (, Egyptian pronunciation: Maṣr El-ʾAdīma) is a historic area in Cairo, Egypt, which includes the site of a Babylon Fortress, Roman-era fortress, the Christian settlement of Coptic Cairo, and the Muslim-era settlement of Fustat that ...
and
Bulaq
Boulaq ( from "guard, customs post"), is a district of Cairo, in Egypt. It neighbours Downtown Cairo, Azbakeya, and the River Nile.
History
The westward shift of the Nile, especially between 1050 and 1350, made land available on its eastern si ...
.
Damage was reported to have affected 212 out of a total of 560 historical monuments.
Most of the severe damage was confined to older masonry structures and particularly those built of
adobe
Adobe (from arabic: الطوب Attub ; ) is a building material made from earth and organic materials. is Spanish for mudbrick. In some English-speaking regions of Spanish heritage, such as the Southwestern United States, the term is use ...
. The exception was a modern reinforced concrete building in
Heliopolis, killing 79 people. Fortunately, many of the inhabitants were outside of the building at the time of the event. It was later revealed that many additional stories were added to the building illegally and the ground floor/basement had been opened up to accommodate community amenities, including a laundry.
The villages of
Giza
Giza (; sometimes spelled ''Gizah, Gizeh, Geeza, Jiza''; , , ' ) is the third-largest city in Egypt by area after Cairo and Alexandria; and fourth-largest city in Africa by population after Kinshasa, Lagos, and Cairo. It is the capital of ...
, were some of the worse hit as they were very close to the epicentre, where 5292 houses collapsed or were damaged beyond repair, and 12,700 needed significant repair, while three villages were almost entirely levelled in
Markaz Al-Ayyat.
Liquefaction
In materials science, liquefaction is a process that generates a liquid from a solid or a gas or that generates a non-liquid phase which behaves in accordance with fluid dynamics.
It occurs both naturally and artificially. As an example of t ...
was reported from areas near the epicenter.
The third most affected governorate was
Fayoum
Faiyum ( ; , ) is a city in Middle Egypt. Located southwest of Cairo, in the Faiyum Oasis, it is the capital of the modern Faiyum Governorate. It is one of Egypt's oldest cities due to its strategic location.
Name and etymology
Originally f ...
, where villages in its north-east were also close to the epicentre, especially in Markaz Tamiya where heavy damage was sustained in 5135 houses in the villages of Al-Rawda, Manshiyat Al-Gamal, Qasr Rashwan and Fanous.
The high number of deaths and injuries (561 and 12,392 respectively) was partly due to the amount of panic caused by the earthquake in Cairo itself.
A large block fell from the
Great Pyramid of Giza
The Great Pyramid of Giza is the largest Egyptian pyramid. It served as the tomb of pharaoh Khufu, who ruled during the Fourth Dynasty of Egypt, Fourth Dynasty of the Old Kingdom of Egypt, Old Kingdom. Built , over a period of about 26 years ...
.
Earthquake characteristics

The earthquake was felt throughout most of northern Egypt, in
Alexandria
Alexandria ( ; ) is the List of cities and towns in Egypt#Largest cities, second largest city in Egypt and the List of coastal settlements of the Mediterranean Sea, largest city on the Mediterranean coast. It lies at the western edge of the Nile ...
,
Port Said
Port Said ( , , ) is a port city that lies in the northeast Egypt extending about along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea, straddling the west bank of the northern mouth of the Suez Canal. The city is the capital city, capital of the Port S ...
and as far south as
Asyut
AsyutAlso spelled ''Assiout'' or ''Assiut''. ( ' ) is the capital of the modern Asyut Governorate in Egypt. It was built close to the ancient city of the same name, which is situated nearby. The modern city is located at , while the ancient city i ...
, and in southern
Israel
Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in West Asia. It Borders of Israel, shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the north-east, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the south-west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Isr ...
.
The calculated
focal mechanism
The focal mechanism of an earthquake describes the Fault (geology)#Slip.2C heave.2C throw, deformation in the Hypocenter, source region that generates the seismic waves. In the case of a Fault (geology), fault-related event, it refers to the ori ...
suggests that this event originated on a WNW-ESE or W-E trending normal fault with a small
strike-slip
In geology, a fault is a planar fracture or discontinuity in a volume of rock across which there has been significant displacement as a result of rock-mass movements. Large faults within Earth's crust result from the action of plate tectonic ...
component.
The
aftershock
In seismology, an aftershock is a smaller earthquake that follows a larger earthquake, in Epicenter, the same area of the Mainshock, main shock, caused as the displaced Crust (geology), crust adjusts to the effects of the main shock. Large earthq ...
s extended about to the south-east of the main shock epicentre, indicating unidirectional rupture propagation. The estimated fault rupture length was also .
The earthquake consisted of two sub-events, the second located about south-east of the first.
Response
The government was criticized for not doing much to respond. On the other hand, Islamic fundamentalist groups such as the
Muslim Brotherhood
The Society of the Muslim Brothers ('' ''), better known as the Muslim Brotherhood ( ', is a transnational Sunni Islamist organization founded in Egypt by Islamic scholar, Imam and schoolteacher Hassan al-Banna in 1928. Al-Banna's teachings s ...
stepped in to provide aid.
See also
*
List of earthquakes in 1992
A list is a set of discrete items of information collected and set forth in some format for utility, entertainment, or other purposes. A list may be memorialized in any number of ways, including existing only in the mind of the list-maker, but ...
*
List of earthquakes in Egypt
This is a list of earthquakes in Egypt, including earthquakes that either had their epicenter in Egypt, or caused significant damage in Egypt.
Seismic hazard
Seismic hazard in Egypt is highest at the southern end of the Gulf of Suez, the northe ...
*
List of earthquakes in the Levant
This is a list of earthquakes in the Levant, including earthquakes that either had their epicenter in the Levant or caused significant damage in the region. As it is now, the list is focused on events which affected the territories of modern-d ...
References
External links
*
{{Earthquakes in Africa
Earthquakes in Egypt
Cairo Earthquake, 1992
Cairo earthquake
October 1992 in Egypt