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.
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.
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.
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.
Chengdu has a population of 11 million, per Wikipedia. I don’t know much about earthquakes, but this sounds like it could be bad...
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.
The Chinese government has send troops into the Wenchuan, is FireWire relief
China’s CCTV has continued to broadcast 35 hours non-stop seismic information
