this snippet just in...
10,000 dead in one province alone
May 13, 2008 08:02am
CHINA says an earthquake centred in the southwest province of Sichuan has killed nearly 10,000 in that province alone.
The Xinua report came as Premier Wen Jiabao warned that rescuers faced huge obstacles reaching the area worst-hit by the quake that struck last night (AEST).
Death Toll From China Quake Could Reach 50,000, CU Expert Says
May 12, 2008
Geological Science — Roger Bilham, professor of geological sciences at the University of Colorado at Boulder, believes the death toll in China from the earthquake that struck the Chengdu Plains region could reach as high as 50,000.
Bilham has done research in the Chengdu area and is an expert on geodesy, earthquake prediction, crustal deformation, plate tectonics and the impacts of urban growth on earthquake fatalities. He has worked extensively in the Himalaya region for the past several decades. Bilham said a thrust fault on the eastern edge of Tibet that caused the 7.8 magnitude event in central China today “pushed out” over the Chengdu Plains, home to about 3 million people.
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http://www.colorado.edu/news/r/c374a98be74d77fdd759fa99b2f71c1e.html