The Sichuan Earthquake

when did it happen

2pm 12th may 2008

what caused it

India is moving north and the Eurasian plate is moving south, the Himalayas are being compressed which drives uplift. The rocks, therefore, have an escape structure where they move east towards mainland China. Longmen Mountains mark a major series of faults. Material moving out of the Himalayas is colliding with China 

This part of China is not a plate so this is an intraplate earthquake

how many major faults and which one didn’t move

3 faults and wenchuan didnt move

what was the magnitude of the earthquake

7\.9

how deep was the focus

19km deep, this is very shallow so shaking was felt on earth

what is the scandal regarding children deaths and why is it significant

15,000 students died (UN)

5,000 (Chinese Gov)

All children died this is very significant because of one child policy

how many dead and homeless

90,000 deaths

5 million homeless

what are the primary impacts

* Yinxiu Town - 92% of buildings collapsed 


* Beichuan country - 805 of the buildings collapsed 
* Almost all infrastructure destroyed 

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what are the secondary impacts

This was a landslide dominant event:

* 40% of the landscape slipped and the slope is still slipping now.
* Landslides killed half the population, 25,000 people lived in the town 


* lack of tourism, It was a holiday destination so many incomes fell
* All the debris from the landslide blocked up the rivers, creating 40 artificial dams across the rivers

bad responses

* government locked off twitter
* building more schools but for who all kids are dead 


* Places for new construction aren't safe  

what hapened with army going wrong places

The Chinese government ordered the army to go to Wencheun bcs they believed it would be the worst damaged area. They reached through Beichuan and Yinxui and leave the people who could have been rescued as they headed to Wenchuan on government orders 

successful responses

* 100k troops to the area immediately after the earthquake and stop the flood threat 


* The govt. Twinned the two worst affected areas with other parts of the country. This meant that every province in China had to contribute in some way to help survivors of the earthquake, this could be by providing doctors, medics, or workers to rebuild etc.

what could have been done

* Sensible land use planning could have prevented loss of life 


* Buildings poorly constructed when we knew there had been landslides before 
* Government buildings were not built to a standard, and school buildings made of rigging concrete with no give at all resulted in a huge loss of life. Floors collapsed in their entirety, with very little chance of survival. Pancake 
* People in California not allowed to build within proximity of the fault