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
Wow. Prayers for all.
I’d suspect Bilham is probably right. He correctly called the massive death toll from the Pakistan quake, IIRC.
He’s noted the potential for an M9 Himalayan quake to kill upwards of a million people in India.