The 1738 Vrancea earthquake occurred on 11 June [O.S. 31 May] 1738, during the third rule of Constantin Mavrocordat. The seism aroused great panic and is mentioned in several sources. It occurred in the lower lithospheric block, at a depth of 130 km (81 mi). Its effects were violent on large areas, the hardest hit being Bucharest, where several houses and churches collapsed.
The Romanian territories were not the only affected. In Niš, a Serbian city where the Ottoman army was quartered, the fortress on Nišava partially collapsed, and in Nikopol on Danube four mosques collapsed.
At an estimated magnitude of 7.7 on the Richter scale, the earthquake of 1738 is one of the strongest in Romanian history.
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