1920 Haiyuan earthquake () occurred on December 16 in Haiyuan County, Ningxia Province,

Republic of China Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the northeas ...

at 19:05:53. It was also called the 1920 Gansu earthquake because Ningxia was a part of

Gansu Province Gansu (, ; alternately romanized as Kansu) is a province in Northwest China. Its capital and largest city is Lanzhou, in the southeast part of the province. The seventh-largest administrative district by area at , Gansu lies between the Tibet ...

when the earthquake occurred. It caused destruction in the Lijunbu- Haiyuan-Ganyanchi area and was assigned the maximum intensity on the

Mercalli intensity scale The Modified Mercalli intensity scale (MM, MMI, or MCS), developed from Giuseppe Mercalli's Mercalli intensity scale of 1902, is a seismic intensity scale used for measuring the intensity of shaking produced by an earthquake. It measures the ef ...

(XII ''Extreme''). About 258,707~273,407 died, making it one of the most fatal earthquakes in China, in turn making it one of the worst disasters in China by death toll.

Earthquake

The earthquake hit at 19:05:53 Gansu-Sichuan time (12:05:53 UTC), reportedly 8.25 or 7.8 M_L, and was followed by a series of

aftershock In seismology, an aftershock is a smaller earthquake that follows a larger earthquake, in the same area of the main shock, caused as the displaced crust adjusts to the effects of the main shock. Large earthquakes can have hundreds to thousa ...

s for three years.

Damage

Over 73,000 people were killed in Haiyuan County. A landslide buried the village of Sujiahe in Xiji County. More than 30,000 people were killed in

Guyuan County Guyuan County () is a county under the administration of Zhangjiakou, Hebei, People's Republic of China. It was once part of the province of Chahar Province, Chahar, and now borders Inner Mongolia. The area of the city is , and the population as ...

. Nearly all the houses collapsed in the cities of Longde and Huining. Damage (VI–X) occurred in seven provinces and regions, including the major cities of

Lanzhou Lanzhou (, ; ) is the capital and largest city of Gansu Province in Northwest China. Located on the banks of the Yellow River, it is a key regional transportation hub, connecting areas further west by rail to the eastern half of the country. H ...

Taiyuan Taiyuan (; ; ; Mandarin pronunciation: ; also known as (), ()) is the capital and largest city of Shanxi Province, People's Republic of China. Taiyuan is the political, economic, cultural and international exchange center of Shanxi Province. ...

Xi'an Xi'an ( , ; ; Chinese: ), frequently spelled as Xian and also known by other names, is the capital of Shaanxi Province. A sub-provincial city on the Guanzhong Plain, the city is the third most populous city in Western China, after Chongqi ...

Xining Xining (; ), alternatively known as Sining, is the capital of Qinghai province in western China and the largest city on the Tibetan Plateau. The city was a commercial hub along the Northern Silk Road's Hexi Corridor for over 2000 years, and w ...

and

Yinchuan Yinchuan (, ; ) is the capital of the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, China, and was the capital of the Tangut-led Western Xia dynasty. It has an area of and a total population of 2,859,074 according to the 2020 Chinese census, and its built ...

. It was felt from the

Yellow Sea The Yellow Sea is a marginal sea of the Western Pacific Ocean located between mainland China and the Korean Peninsula, and can be considered the northwestern part of the East China Sea. It is one of four seas named after common colour ter ...

Qinghai Qinghai (; alternately romanized as Tsinghai, Ch'inghai), also known as Kokonor, is a landlocked province in the northwest of the People's Republic of China. It is the fourth largest province of China by area and has the third smallest po ...

(Tsinghai) Province and from Nei Mongol (Inner Mongolia) south to central

Sichuan Province Sichuan (; zh, c=, labels=no, ; zh, p=Sìchuān; alternatively romanized as Szechuan or Szechwan; formerly also referred to as "West China" or "Western China" by Protestant missions) is a province in Southwest China occupying most of the ...

Casualties

Since 2003, Chinese seismologists has calculated 258,707~273,407 to be the empirical verifiable range of death toll. Older sources put the deaths to be 234,117 or 235,502. Either way, it is one of the most fatal earthquakes in China, in turn making it one of the worst disasters in China by death toll. Many more perished because of cold: frequent aftershocks caused the survivors to fear building anything other than temporary shelters, and a severe winter killed many who had lived through the original earthquake. The Sufi

Jahriyya Jahriyya (also spelled Jahrīya or Jahriyah) is a ''menhuan'' ( Sufi order) in China, commonly called the New Teaching (''Xinjiao''). Founded in the 1760s by Ma Mingxin, it was active in the late 18th and 19th centuries in what was then Gansu Pr ...

Muslim Hui leader Ma Yuanzhang and his son died in the earthquake when the roof of the Mosque they were in collapsed in Zhangjiachuan.

Ground effects

About of surface faulting was seen from Lijunbu through Ganyanchi to Jingtai. There were over 50,000 landslides in the epicentral area and ground cracking was widespread. Some rivers were dammed; others changed course.

Seiche A seiche ( ) is a standing wave in an enclosed or partially enclosed body of water. Seiches and seiche-related phenomena have been observed on lakes, reservoirs, swimming pools, bays, harbors, caves and seas. The key requirement for formation of ...

s from this earthquake were observed in two lakes and three fjords in

western Norway Western Norway ( nb, Vestlandet, Vest-Norge; nn, Vest-Noreg) is the region along the Atlantic coast of southern Norway. It consists of the counties Rogaland, Vestland, and Møre og Romsdal. The region has no official or political-administrativ ...

Aftermath

The Muslim General Ma Fuxiang was involved in relief efforts in

during the earthquake.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:1920 Haiyuan Earthquake Earthquakes in Gansu Haiyuan Earthquake, 1920 Haiyuan Earthquake, 1920 History of Ningxia Geography of Ningxia Landslides in China 1920 disasters in China