The 1944 San Juan earthquake was a seismic movement that took place in the province of San Juan, Argentina. The strong earthquake (estimated magnitude 7.8 in the Richter scale) destroyed a large part of the provincial capital San Juan and killed 10,000 of its inhabitants, 10% of its population at the time. It is acknowledged as the largest natural disaster in Argentine history. The center-west area of Argentina is the one most prone to seismic events. An earthquake is a phenomenon that results from and is powered by the sudden release of stored energy that radiates seismic waves. ... Argentina is subdivided in 23 provinces (Spanish: provincias, singular - provincia) and 1 federal district (capital federal). ... San Juan is a province of Argentina, located in the westen part of the country. ... Richter magnitude test scale (or more correctly local magnitude ML scale) assigns a single number to quantify the size of an earthquake. ... Capital City of San Juan Province in Argentina Categories: Argentina geography stubs ... Cuyo is the name given to the wine-producing, mountainous area of north-west Argentina, comprising the provinces of San Juan, San Luis and Mendoza. ...

The earthquake started at 08:52 PM on 15 January 1944. Its epicenter was located 30 km north of the provincial capital, near La Laja, Albardón Department. It destroyed 90% of the buildings in the city; the ones still standing suffered such damage that in most cases they had to be torn down. It is considered that the reason for such widespread destruction was the low quality of the constructions, rather than just the power of the earthquake. January 15 is the 15th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1944 (MCMXLIV) was a leap year starting on Saturday (the link is to a full 1944 calendar). ... The epicenter is directly above the earthquakes focus. ...

In 1944 many of San Juan's houses were made of adobe. The reconstruction prompted the creation of a Building Code and was done respecting modern knowledge of earthquake and architectural tendencies: resistant brick and concrete one-story houses, wider sidewalks and streets. It has been suggested that Mudbrick be merged into this article or section. ...

Aid and reconstruction

There was some debate as to whether it should be more advisable to rebuild the city in the same place, or take advantage of the situation to move it to a less dangerous location. The former alternative won.

At the start of the reconstruction, emergency homes were built for the population with funds of the national state. This was the first state-directed massive construction plan in Argentina. The first stages of the process were done under Peronist rule. Curiously, Colonel Juan Perón, then to become president, had met his wife Eva Duarte (Evita), in a fundraiser to help the victims. After the 1955 coup d'état ousted Perón, the reconstruction was continued under the de facto President Pedro Eugenio Aramburu. Peronism (Spanish: Peronismo), or Justicialism (Spanish: Justicialismo), is an Argentine political ideology based on the ideas and programs associated with former president Juan Perón. ... Juan Domingo Perón (October 8, 1895 – July 1, 1974) was an Argentine soldier and politician, elected three times as President of Argentina from 1946 to 1955 and from 1973 to 1974. ... María Eva Duarte de Perón (May 7, 1919 – July 26, 1952) was the second wife of Argentine President Juan Domingo Perón (1895–1974) and the First Lady of Argentina from 1946 until her death in 1952. ... A fundraiser is a social function, e. ... The Revolución Libertadora (Spanish, Liberating Revolution) was a military uprising that ended the second presidential term of Juan Domingo Perón in Argentina, in 1955. ... This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ...

The earthquake caused many families to scatter in the confusion, and left many orphaned children. According to historian Mark Healey, the social issues derived from these orphans (around 1,000) had a profound influence in the shaping of the family legislation dictated during Perón's first term, two years later.

The modern city

As of 2006, San Juan has a population of around 400,000, and 63% of its approximately 90,000 homes, and 100% of its public institutional buildings, were built under seismic safety regulations. This however leaves more than a third of non-seismic-resistant houses. Seismic retrofitting is the modification of existing structures to make them more resistant to seismic activity, ground motion, or soil failure due to earthquakes. ...

A study on seismic vulnerability, conducted by the University of San Juan in 2005, showed that 28% of the peripheric neighborhoods present medium risk, and 20% of the city can be classified as high or very high vulnerability.

References

• Mark Healey (2002). "The Fragility of the Moment: Politics and Class in the Aftermath of the 1944 Argentine Earthquake" (PDF). International Labor and Working-Class History 62. Retrieved on 2006-08-07.
• (Spanish) Historia del país. El terremoto de San Juan.
• (Spanish) Universia Argentina. San Juan: identifican la vulnerabilidad sísmica.
• (Spanish) EIRD. Prevención Sísmica y Desarrollo Urbano.
• (Spanish) Diario de Cuyo. 15 January 2004. Aniversario del Terremoto del 44.
• (Spanish) Página/12. 7 August 2006. "Hubo un borramiento del pasado" (interview with historian Mark Healey).