1992 Cairo earthquake
The 1992 Cairo earthquake, also known as the Dahshur earthquake, occurred at 15:09 local time on 12 October, with an epicenter in the Western Desert near Dahshur, Giza, south of Egypt's capital city, Cairo. The earthquake had a magnitude 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 Delta, and northern Upper Egypt. It was the most damaging seismic event to affect Egypt since 1847.
Geology
Cairo sits within a diffuse zone of faulting that transfers extension from the Gulf of Suez Rift to the Manzala rift beneath the Nile Delta.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 collapsed or were so heavily damaged, they were identified to be demolished, while a further 28,000 buildings, required significant repairs or partial demolition, 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, Old Cairo and Boulaq. 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. 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, 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 was reported from areas near the epicenter.
The third most affected governorate was Fayoum, 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 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.