total of 30 dead and 300 wounded. Vaslui also suffered heavy losses, both human – seven people dead, and material. In Ploiești around 200 homes were destroyed, and a further 2,000 were seriously damaged; the situation was also serious in Buzău County, where about 1,900 buildings were affected. In Plopeni, a Worker's Dormitory made of masonry totally collapsed, killing 30 to 60 workers and injuring many. Counties in Transylvania and Dobruja showed no serious damage. The earthquake induced geomorphological phenomena in southern, eastern and northern Wallachia, as well as southern Moldavia. These consisted in landslides, liquefaction, settlements, water spurting; in the Vrancea Mountains, the course of the Zăbala River was partially blocked, forming a small natural dam lake. Bulgaria The earthquake of 4 March heavily impacted Bulgaria. The city of Svishtov was the most affected. Here, three blocks of flats collapsed, killing up to 120 people, among them 27 children. Many other buildings were damaged, including the Church of the Holy Trinity. In Ruse, the tremors were strong but there was little damage; only one person perished, hit by a huge architectural ornament that fell down from a nearby building. Soviet Moldova According to official data, 2,765 buildings were destroyed in the Moldavian SSR, while 20,763 buildings suffered significant damage. Spatial distribution of human casualties Aftershocks The earthquake epicenter was located in the south-west part of Vrancea County, the most active seismic area in Romania, at a depth of about . The shock wave was felt in almost all countries in the Balkan Peninsula, as well as the Soviet republics of Ukraine and Moldavia, albeit with a lower intensity. Seismic movement was followed by aftershocks of smaller magnitude. The strongest aftershock occurred on the morning of 5 March 1977, at 02:00 AM, at a depth of , with a magnitude was 4.9 on the Richter magnitude scale. Other aftershocks' magnitudes did not exceed 4.3 or 4.5 . Reactions of authorities At the time of the earthquake, Nicolae and Elena Ceaușescu were on an official visit to Nigeria. Ceaușescu heard about the disaster in the country from a Romanian official. Initially, news about the earthquake was confusing, and people talked about a much larger catastrophe. Due to a power failure in Bucharest, communication services were down for several hours. The population took to the streets, scared of possible aftershocks. At that moment, authorities had not taken any concrete steps. Residents of