Map of China showing Shaanxi province (red) and the other provinces affected by the earthquake (orange)

The Shaanxi earthquake or Hua County Earthquake is the deadliest earthquake on record, killing approximately 830,000 people. It occurred on the morning of 23 January 1556 in Shaanxi, China. More than ninety seven counties in the provinces of Shaanxi, Shanxi, Henan, Gansu, Hebei, Shandong, Hubei, Hunan, Jiangsu and Anhui were affected [1]. A 520 mile-wide area was destroyed and in some counties, sixty percent of the population was killed [2]. Most of the population at the time lived in artificial caves in loess cliffs, many of which collapsed during the disaster. Image File history File links Shaangxi_1556_earthquake_map_of_provinces. ... Image File history File links Shaangxi_1556_earthquake_map_of_provinces. ... Global earthquake epicenters, 1963–1998 An earthquake is a sudden and sometimes catastrophic movement of a part of the Earths surface. ... January 23 is the 23rd day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... Events January 16 - Abdication of Emperor Charles V. His son, Philip II becomes King of Spain, while his brother Ferdinand becomes Holy Roman Emperor January 23 - The Shaanxi earthquake, the deadliest earthquake in history, occurs with its epicenter in Shaanxi province, China. ... Shaanxi (Simplified Chinese: 陕西; Traditional Chinese: 陝西; Hanyu Pinyin: ; Wade-Giles: Shan-hsi; Postal System Pinyin: Shensi, pronounced like Shahn-shee) is a north-central province of the Peoples Republic of China, and includes portions of the Loess Plateau on the middle reaches of the Yellow River as well as the... Shaanxi (Simplified Chinese: 陕西; Traditional Chinese: 陝西; Hanyu Pinyin: ; Wade-Giles: Shan-hsi; Postal System Pinyin: Shensi, pronounced like Shahn-shee) is a north-central province of the Peoples Republic of China, and includes portions of the Loess Plateau on the middle reaches of the Yellow River as well as the... Shanxi (Chinese: 山西; Hanyu Pinyin: ; Wade-Giles: Shan-hsi; Postal System Pinyin: Shansi) is a province in the northern part of the Peoples Republic of China. ... Henan (Chinese: 河南; pinyin: ; Wade-Giles: Ho-nan), is a province of the Peoples Republic of China, located in the central part of the country. ... Gansu (Simplified Chinese: 甘肃; Traditional Chinese: 甘肅; Hanyu Pinyin: ; Wade-Giles: Kan-su, Kansu, or Kan-suh) is a province located in the northwest of the Peoples Republic of China. ... Hebei (Chinese: 河北; pinyin: ; Wade-Giles: Ho-pei; Postal System Pinyin: Hopeh) is a northern province of the Peoples Republic of China. ... Shandong (Simplified Chinese: 山东; Traditional Chinese: 山東; Hanyu Pinyin: ; Wade-Giles: Shan-tung) is a coastal province of eastern Peoples Republic of China. ... Hubei (Chinese: 湖北; Hanyu Pinyin: ; Wade-Giles: Hu-pei; Postal System Pinyin: Hupeh) is a central province of the Peoples Republic of China. ... Hunan (Chinese: 湖南; Hanyu Pinyin: ) is a province of China, located in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River and south of Lake Dongting (hence the name Hunan, meaning south of the lake). Hunan is sometimes called 湘 (pinyin: Xiāng) for short, after the Xiang River which runs through the province. ... Jiangsu (Simplified Chinese: 江苏; Traditional Chinese: 江蘇; Hanyu Pinyin: ; Wade-Giles: Chiang-su; Postal System Pinyin: Kiangsu) is a province of the Peoples Republic of China, located along the east coast of the country. ... Anhui (Chinese: 安徽; Hanyu Pinyin: ; Wade-Giles: An-hui; Postal System Pinyin: Ngan-hui, Anhwei or An-hwei) is a province of the Peoples Republic of China. ... Loess in Hungary has travelled by wind from Asia This article is about the geologic material, for the statistical technique see Loess curve. ...

The Earthquake

This was in the reign of the Jiajing Emperor of the Ming dynasty. The Jiajing Emperor (September 16, 1507–January 23, 1567) was the 11th emperor of China (Ming dynasty) between 1521-1567. ... Ming redirects here – for other uses of this term see Ming (disambiguation) The Ming Dynasty (Chinese: 明朝; Pinyin: ) was the ruling dynasty of China from 1368 to 1644. ...

Modern estimates, based on geological data, give the earthquake a magnitude of approximately eight on the moment magnitude scale. While it was the most deadly earthquake and the fifth deadliest natural disaster in history, there have been earthquakes with higher magnitudes. Aftershocks continued several times a month for half a year [3]. The epicenter was in Hua county near Mount Hua in Shaanxi (Latitude 34.5, Longitude 109.7). The moment magnitude scale (a successor to the Richter scale), was introduced in 1979 by Tom Hanks and Hiroo Kanamori and is used by seismologists to compare the energy released by earthquakes. ... The epicenter is directly above the earthquakes focus. ... Mount Hua, known in Chinese as Huashan, is one of the five sacred mountains of China. ...

In the annals of China it was described thus:

In the winter of 1556 AD, an earthquake catastrophe occurred in the Shanxi and Shaanxi Provinces. In our Hua County, various misfortunes took place. Mountains and rivers changed places and roads were destroyed. In some places, the ground suddenly rose up and formed new hills, or it sank in abruptly and became new valleys. In other areas, a stream burst out in an instant, or the ground broke and new gullies appeared. Huts, official houses, temples and city walls collapsed all of a sudden.

The earthquake badly damaged many of the Forest of Stone steles. Of the 114 Kaicheng Stone Classics, 40 were broken in the earthquake. [4] Stele Forest (碑林; pinyin: Bēilín), aka Xian Stele Forest Museum or Xian Beilin Museum, is a museum for steles and stone sculptures which is located in Xian, China. ... Stele is also a concept in plant biology. ...

The scholar Qin Keda survived the earthquake and recorded details of it. His conclusions from this earthquake included that "at the very beginning of the earthquake, people indoors should not go out immediately. Just crouch down and wait for chances. Even if the nest is collapsed, some eggs in it may still be kept intact." [5] This may indicate that many people were killed trying to flee while some who stayed put may have survived.

The shaking reduced the height of the Small Wild Goose Pagoda in Xi'an from 45 meters to 43.4 meters Small Wild Goose Pagoda, sometimes Little Goose Pagoda (Chinese: 小雁塔; pinyin: ), is one of two significant pagodas in the city of Xian, China. ... Nickname: Changan Motto: Official website: http://www. ...

Loess caves

Millions of people at the time lived in artificial Loess caves on high cliffs in the area of the Loess Plateau. Loess is the name for the silty soil that windstorms deposited on the plateau over the ages. The soft loess clay had formed in millions of years due to wind blowing silt to the area from the Gobi Desert. Loess is a highly erosion-prone soil that is susceptible to the forces of wind and water. The Loess Plateau and its dusty soil cover almost all of Shanxi, Shaanxi, and Gansu provinces and parts of others. Much of the population lived in dwellings called Yaodongs in these cliffs. This was the major contributing factor to the huge death toll. The earthquake caused landslides, which destroyed the caves. The Loess Plateau is a plateau that covers an area of some 640,000 km² in the upper and middle parts of Chinas Yellow River. ... Loess in Hungary has travelled by wind from Asia This article is about the geologic material, for the statistical technique see Loess curve. ... Silt refers to soil or rock particles of a certain very small size range (see grain size). ... The Gobi (Mongolian Говь, Chinese 戈壁; pinyin gē bì) is a large desert region in northern China and southern Mongolia. ... This article is about artificial caves used as dwellings, especially those in north China called yaodongs, as opposed to natural caves. ... This entry refers to the geological term landslide. ...

Cost

The cost of damage done by the earthquake is almost impossible to measure in modern terms. The death toll, however, has been traditionally given as 830,000. The accompanying property damage had to have been so great as to be nearly incalculable – an entire region of inner China had been destroyed and an estimated 60% of the region's population annihilated. The cost of damage would have been equivalent to the absolute destruction caused by the detonation of a nuclear weapon (though without the standard effects of such, of course). The Tangshan earthquake (唐山大地震) of July 28, 1976 is one of the largest earthquakes in loss of life to hit the modern world. ... The following is a list of major earthquakes. ...

Comparison

The 1556 Shaanxi earthquake, however, was not the worst disaster in Chinese history. For instance, there were tens of millions of Chinese deaths during the Three Years of Natural Disasters from 1959 to 1961. The history of China is detailed by historical records dating back to 1500 BC. China is one of the worlds oldest continuous major civilizations. ... The Three Years of Natural Disasters (Simplified:三年自然灾害; Traditional:三年自然災害; pinyin: sān nián zì rán zāi hài) refers to the period in the Peoples Republic of China between 1959 and 1961, in which a combination of poor economic policies and rounds of natural disasters caused widespread... 1959 (MCMLIX) was a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... 1961 (MCMLXI) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will take you to calendar). ...

See also

• List of earthquakes

The following is a list of major earthquakes. ...

Reference

• Annals of China quoted from p.100 of 30 Years' Review of China's Science and Technology, 1949-79 as seen on Google Print

External link

• Ruins of Hua County Earthquake