Posted on 05/12/2008 12:27:28 AM PDT by Lijahsbubbe
An earthquake measuring 7.8 on the Richter scale has hit China's Sichuan province. The tremor was felt across the entire region - shaking buildings in the capital, Beijing, as well as the Thai capital, Bangkok, and Hanoi, the capital of Vietnam. US Geological Survey said the quake struck 57 miles north-west of the city of Chengdu at 2.29pm local time (6.28am GMT).
Some 10 million people live in Chengdu.
ping
2 major natural disasters in a short time. Scary. Prayers to all.
7.8 is quite high. However, I don’t know the region in China that it hit that well. But if there was shaking all way from Beijing to Hanoi... it’s gotta be a big one. Hope it struck somewhere where there’s not a lot of people . . . then again it is China.
Oops, should be 2 natural disasters. Delete the “major.”
How about “major natural disasters”.
Like the cyclone disaster, reports of injuries and deaths will be slow in coming out.
After taking a look at Chengdu, China, it does appear the epicenter was located near a mountain range in central China, not too close to any major population centers. We can hope for the best.
This one could be very bad indeed.
With the southern section of the San Andreas fault being 150 years overdue for a bigone and the Hayward fault ready to slip, I would not want to be anywhere near California anytime soon.
This page seems to be useful determining how close the epicenter was to population centers. It’s from the USGS.
http://earthquake.usgs.gov/eqcenter/pager/events/us/2008ryan/index.html
I don’t know much about earthquakes at all. But this sounded big.
Drudge is slow on the details. I checked Yahoo news, and didn’t find any new info.
And finally, my last bit of looking at the USGS site indicates around 21,000 people in the ‘extreme exposure zone’.
http://earthquake.usgs.gov/eqcenter/pager/events/us/2008ryan/index.html#shakemap
Thanks.
The violent doesn’t sound too cool either. And that’s what, 86 thousand?
That’s what it appears to be. However, I am currently attempting to find the same population map for other significant earthquakes. However, I cannot seem to find it. Using past maps, I was thinking we can get an estimate on how accurate these maps are in predicting damage, and so forth. Your welcome, by the way, the more information we have the better we can look at the whole picture. :-)
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080512/ap_on_re_as/china_earthquake
Update here. I guess we’ll have to wait and see how accurate it is.
This is an older population map of China, but you can see that the density of people in Chengdu is greater than anyplace else:
cHINA POPULATION AND DENSITY MAP
The buildings there are typically very old or of suspect construction if they're modern. It's not a particularly modernized province. The effects of this quake could be dreadful.
Also appears, there has been an aftershock. Mag. 6; same area.
Earthquake in China, PING.
This report says the epicenter was in a rather remote area:
Breaking News
http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,30200-1315695,00.html
China Hit By Earthquake
Updated:08:32, Monday May 12, 2008
An earthquake measuring 7.5 on the Richter scale has hit China’s Sichuan province.
The tremor was felt across the entire region - shaking buildings in the capital, Beijing, as well as the Thai capital, Bangkok, and Hanoi, the capital of Vietnam.
Quake hit near ChengduUS Geological Survey said the quake struck 57 miles north-west of the city of Chengdu at 2.29pm local time (6.28am GMT).
Some 10 million people live in Chengdu.
An eyewitness said people flooded out of buildings, but there was no sign of damage or injuries.
The area where the quake lies on the eastern edge of the Tibetan plateau, where mountains rise sharply and the population density is generally thin.
A magnitude 7.5 earthquake is considered a major event, capable of causing widespread damage and injuries in populated areas.
In the Taiwanese capital of Taipei, 100 miles off the southeastern Chinese, buildings swayed when the quake hit. There were no immediate reports of injuries or damage.
Thanks for the info. Check out the link on post 18 where they say the pop. is very thin and so far there are no reports of widespread injuries or damage.
Chengdu has a population of 11 million, per Wikipedia. I don’t know much about earthquakes, but this sounds like it could be bad...
Thanks.
Place-Saver for later...
I’m off for the night.
Prayers and God speed to those effected.
Well, Chengdu is a major city, for sure. But it sounds like the city itself avoided the worst of it, so maybe it won’t be too bad in terms of damage.
Oh my. 100+ Million people in that province; if my sleep deprived eyes aren’t lying to me. I appreciate the research into the area. I hope to find out more when I wake up. Thanks.
There's going to be massive damage.
But for the Grace of God go I.
My first thought was of the extremely rapid construction cities like Chengdu have seen in the last decade, and how they may not be up to “code”. Let us hope that doesn’t play out that way...
http://edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/asiapcf/05/12/china.quake/
This link tells of the damage near the epicenter due to the shallowness and also the population. Ditto what you said.
That CNN article has entirely the wrong population for the city. It’s over 10 million, not 2 million. Maybe someone heard it wrong.
Really. I have no idea. But thanks for your input. I’m sure you’re more accurate than CNN. NOT being sarcastic.
Sky news says over 10 million as well. I think it will be a little while before we find out the extent.
.
Been there and would not want to be there in a 7.8 quake. If there is signicant damage - and I can’t imagine how there would not be - it would not be the easiest place to leave.
Great link. Thanks.
It looks like I got something wrong with the coordinates (decimal conversion) and that the nearest significant population is about 15 miles away.
CNBC now reporting “deaths and injuries and a school collapsed”....
Earlier ‘nothing to see here’ reports seem to have been somewhat optimistic.....
wonder if the great dam project held up.....any tusami effects on that huge lake?
There was a post on FR a couple of weeks ago that talked about the damn and its ability to withstand a 6.x quake. Perhaps someone can find it. I looked but could not.
Here’s the last one I felt... I remember I was dreaming (it was about 1am)... and it woke me up fast... I remember going from dream scene and it flashed a bright white (my waking up point). I clung to my sheets (shaken side to side for about a minute or so)... I could hear my heartbeat... slow but heavy :/
http://earthquake.usgs.gov/eqcenter/eqinthenews/2008/us2008rtbu/#details
Forgot to mention that I live on the 1st floor of a 3 story apartment complex X(
Earth a quakin Ping please.
CNBC just reported - headline only - “900 students buried”
Pics just now coming into US tv News....does not look good.
(I had the sound down so did not hear the report)
BBC saying the same thing. It’s early and news takes awhile to get out even in open societies; but I suspect this will be a case where the western media, rightly critical of Burma for soft-pedaling news of the cyclone disaster, will enthusiastically support China’s efforts (Olympics are less than 3 months away) to do the same thing.
On my 48th Birthday the earth shook. /sarcasm.
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