A case study on the Chinese Sichuan Earthquake. A useful revision document for the geography topic of earth hazards.

1. MatthewMortimer
Sichuan Earthquake
The 2008 Sichuanearthquake,measuredatamagnitude
of 8.0 on the Richterscale.The earthquake occurredat
02:28:01 PMChinaStandardTime on May 12th in Sichuan
province.The deathtoll stoodat 69,197 andalso left
18,222 missing.
The earthquake occurreddue to pressure resultingfrom
the Indianplate collidingwiththe Eurasian.The tremor
was sentalongthe Longmenshanfaultline thatruns
throughSichuan.The earthquake lasted2minutes.
Despite the areabeingmore rural itstill hasa dense
populationof 43millionpeople.
Initial deathtollsranat 8,700 but thiseventuallyrose
to 69,000 with18,000 people missingtwomonths
afterthe quake. 374,000 people were injuredand
between5millionand11 millionpeople were made
homeless.A total of 5 millionbuildingscollapsed;
includinganumberof schools.Juyuanmiddleschool in
Dujiangyancitycollapsedkilling900 pupils.
Communicationswerebroughttoa haltand the cost
of restoringinfrastructure wasestimatedat$75
million.Manyareaswere leftcompletelycutoff bylandslidesandbuildingcollapsesleftstreets
litteredwithrubble.InShifang,chemical plantswere destroyed,killinghundredsof workersand
releasingtoxicammoniaintothe environment. Powerandwatersupplieswerecutandextensive
floodingoccurreddue tothe landslidesblockingrivers.
The emergencyrelief andrescue operationswere
oftenslow.Some areasinWenchuanwere not
reachedforover30 hours.20 helicopterswere
assignedtorescue andrelief andtroopswere
parachutedinto assessthe situation.The army
coordinatedmostof the relief effort. China
requestedinternational help2daysafterthe quake.
Teamsfrom Japan,RussiaandSouth Koreajoined
the rescue effort. Effortswere made tofree people
trappedinthe rubble,andlandwas flattenedso
that tentscouldbe erectedtohouse the injuredandhomeless. Over£100 millionwasdonatedto
the Red Crossinthe fortnightfollowingthe quake.Muchof thisfundingwentintorunningthese
camps. The Chinese governmentpledgeda$10millionrebuildingfundandbankswrote off the debts
of survivorswhodidnothave insurance ontheirproperties.