[Grigori]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/s...000/4132109.stm










Without warning, a magnitude 7.8 earthquake struck the city of Tangshan in China, killing 242,769 people and destroying 90 percent of the city’s buildings. A similar earthquake struck 17 months earlier about 280 miles northeast near Haicheng. But a series of smaller foreshocks provoked Chinese officials to issue warnings urging people to remain outdoors, and only 1,328 people died.

This post has been edited by General_Zhaoyun: 04 August 2005 - 08:27 AM

[Grigori]

7月27日上午，大雨如注，然而位于纪念碑广场西侧的抗震纪念馆并没有冷清下来，一批批参观者打着雨伞进入馆内，讲解声、惊叹声不绝于耳，这仅是纪念馆火热参观场面的典型一幕。据统计，今年以来该馆已接待参观团200余个，接待参观者逾4万人次。

造型别致的抗震纪念馆，总建筑面积5380平方米，目前已成为展示唐山形象的重要窗口之一。29年前发生的那场大地震，顷刻之间把唐山夷为一片平地。抗震纪念馆内保存着唐山地震前后的珍贵照片，这些照片真实地记载着地震给唐山人造成的巨大冲击及震后新唐山的崛起。今年7月2日，欧盟委员会副主席雅克·巴洛特先生参观抗震纪念馆时深受触动，他当即提笔留言：“灾难令人震惊，勇气令人感动。”像他一样，数以万计的国内外宾客通过参观抗震纪念馆，了解了真实的唐山。据该馆副馆长蔚超介绍，在今年的4万多名参观者中，市外参观者约占70％以上，人数接近3万人。

抗震纪念馆不仅仅是国内外宾客了解唐山的窗口，也是我市的爱国主义教育基地和科普基地。河北理工大学、唐山师范学院、唐山35中等大中学校，与抗震纪念馆签订文明共建协议，积极组织青少年学生到馆内参观，普及防震减灾知识，引导学生们弘扬抗震精神，为国家强盛和家乡建设作出更大贡献。



更新时间： 2005-7-28

[Grigori]

http://www.globalwat...gp/qinglong.htm

Two weeks before the Tangshan earthquake...

Administrator Wang Chunqing attended a conference organized by the State Seismological Bureau (SSB) for the North China-Bohai region. During this conference, on the evening of July 16, 1976, scientist Wang Chengmin of the SSB's Analysis and Prediction Department spoke at an informal meeting attended by sixty conference participants. Young administrator Wang Chunqing was among the audience. He took detailed notes of the scientist's presentation, including this entry:

"...There is a strong possibility of a magnitude 5
earthquake from July 22 to August 5, 1976 in the
Tangshan region. A magnitude 8 is also likely in the
second half of '76. Preparations should be made
immediately..."

On July 21, 1976, administrator Wang Chunqing returned to Qinglong County. He reported on the Tangshan conference, highlighted the talk given by scientist Wang Chengmin, and included updated information from the county's 16 lay monitoring stations. Public officials of Qinglong County took the report very seriously and acted upon the information immediately.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
School classes were relocated and held outdoors several days before the eventual earthquake. Students also played an important part in the collection of data.

At the Longshan High School, teacher Gao Qianhong
assigned a student team to monitor instruments
measuring geomagnetism, crustal stress, and water-
well levels. Another team was assigned to observe
animal behaviors. While the instrument group did not
see any unusual signals, nocturnal animals like weasels
and rats were observed to move in broad daylight, unafraid
of their human observers. Based on these observations
and administrator Wang Chunqing's recommendations,
Mr. Gao organized a round-the-clock earthquake watch
and took other preparedness measures.

At the insistence of students who observed significant
changes in animal behavior, a school training workshop
on earthquake preparedness planned for July 28th was
moved to the 27th, one day earlier.

July 24, 1976

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
An official early warning from the Chinese Communist Party Committee of Qinglong County was issued advising people to prepare for a possible devastating earthquake.

The County government took advantage of a planned agricultural meeting to publicize the earthquake warning. Telephone and public announcement systems were also used to broadcast the alert.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Volunteer earthquake monitoring stations report:
From July 24th, natural spring water had become
muddy and undrinkable.

July 26, 1976

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
By July 26th, temporary earthquake tents were set up. Led by County Secretary Ran Guangqi, who moved into an earthquake tent himself, over 60% of Qinglong County's more than 470,000 residents moved out of their homes. Those who did not move were instructed to keep their doors and windows open at all times to avoid being trapped in case of an earthquake.

Businesses also relocated to outdoor locations where they continued their normal activities.

[Sephodwyrm]

This disaster was a great tragedy indeed.

Hopefully there's better and safer building regulations there.

[Lafiel]

Thanks, Grigori, for the information. Just a question, your first post said the earthquake struck without warning, but your following posts suggest that the government was forewarned, and they apparently took some precautionary measures. Any thoughts on why the death toll was still so high? Inadequate preparations?

[Grigori]

Lafiel, on Jul 29 2005, 11:43 AM, said:

Thanks, Grigori, for the information.  Just a question, your first post said the earthquake struck without warning, but your following posts suggest that the government was forewarned, and they apparently took some precautionary measures.  Any thoughts on why the death toll was still so high?  Inadequate preparations?

I was quoting from internet sources. I think when they said "without warning" they meant there were no foreshocks. You'll notice much of the work done in the weeks prior was trying to setup early warning buy measuring well water. Realistically there was no way to detect signs of a quake just before it happens.

The precautionary measures they took such as working outdoors were useless because it assumed the quake would take place during workhours. But it happened early in the morning and everyone was in bed. The concept of urban earthquake survival was not part of public awareness back then and buildings were not built to withstand such major magnitude quakes. Usually quakes happen in the rural areas and casualties are light, but quakes with heavy fatalities were not unprecedented. Building earthquake resistant buildings is a fairly new science.

1920
Dec. 16, Gansu province, China: magnitude 8.6 earthquake killed 200,000 in northwest China.
1923
Sept. 1, Japan: magnitude 8.3 earthquake destroyed one third of Tokyo and most of Yokohama. More than 140,000 killed.
1927
May 22, nr. Xining, China: magnitude 8.3 earthquake claimed approximately 200,000 victims.
1932
Dec. 25, Gansu, China: magnitude 7.6 earthquake killed approximately 70,000.

[Lafiel]

Thanks again. You are right, since it was in the early morning hours, most of the fatalities must have been inside the collapsing buildings. We should all remember this tragedy, and I especially hope that sturdier, disaster-resistant engineering was used to rebuild the city. The power of Nature is humbling indeed, no matter how well we build our cities.

[Alexander39]

The great Kanto Earthquake on September 1 1923. were a foreboding of things to come duing WW2. most of the people killed were burned or suffocate to death by the more than 88 major fires that burned after the earthquake.
The earthquake itself hit at 11.58 AM lokal time and only relativly minor casualties were reportet at first since most people were outside at work or in the fields, but a typhoon that hit the northern most part off Honshu at the same time blew up several of the fires into a firestorm one of which took more than 30000 lives.

The Earthquake also had consequences for the Japanes Navy, the Battlecruiser AMAGI which were chosen to be rebuilt as a carrier together whit her sister AKAGI, were destroyed by the earthquake, so after the the Kanto earthquake the IJN had to take the battleship KAGA and convert her into a carrier instead, which would turn out to be a less satisfactory conversion than AKAGI.

Furthermore the earthquake also would have consequences economically and politically, since the rebuilding were so expensive and almost crippeling (1/3 of Japans shipbuilding capacity were destroyed or damaged severly by the quake)
The followring momentarily cutbacks to the Army and Navy would further inflame the radical elements on the political right, and they would push even further to involve Japan in outside expansion so they would not be as vulnarable to outside forces.

All in all the Kanto earthquake coursed the death off more than 140000 people and set the IJN back by more than a 1½ year in its building programmes, and last but not least were the final straw for the hawks in the Japanese political scene when it came to involving the Army in expansion on the mainland.

http://www.japan-gui...m/a/earthquake/

Here there are lots of pictures from the aftermarth of the quake.

This post has been edited by Alexander39: 29 July 2005 - 12:54 AM