On 15 January 2000, at 07:37 CST, a or earthquake struck

Yao'an County Yao'an County (; Chuxiong Yi script: , IPA: ) is under the administration of the Chuxiong Yi Autonomous Prefecture, in the northwest of Yunnan province, China. A prominent Chinese philosopher Li Zhi used to a prefect of Yao'an county and his gov ...

Chuxiong Yi Autonomous Prefecture Chuxiong Prefecture, officially the Chuxiong Yi Autonomous Prefecture ( zh, c=楚雄彝族自治州 , p=Chǔxióng Yízú Zìzhìzhōu; Chuxiong Yi script: ， IPA: ; Yi script: ꊉꇑꆑꌠꑼꂰ; Yi Pinyin: wop lup nut su yuop mi), is an auto ...

Yunnan Yunnan; is an inland Provinces of China, province in Southwestern China. The province spans approximately and has a population of 47.2 million (as of 2020). The capital of the province is Kunming. The province borders the Chinese provinces ...

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

, east of

Dali City Dali City (, Bai: or ) is the county-level seat of the Dali Bai Autonomous Prefecture in northwestern Yunnan, China. Dali City is administered through 12 township-level districts, two of which are also commonly referred to as Dali. Xiag ...

. The earthquake was preceded by a foreshock at 06:09 local time.

Tectonic setting

Yunnan lies within the area affected by the continuing collision between the

India Plate The Indian plate (or India plate) is or was a minor tectonic plate straddling the equator in the Eastern Hemisphere. Originally a part of the ancient continent of Gondwana, the Indian plate broke away from the other fragments of Gondwana and ...

and the Eurasian plate that has led to the formation of the

Tibetan Plateau The Tibetan Plateau, also known as the Qinghai–Tibet Plateau or Qingzang Plateau, is a vast elevated plateau located at the intersection of Central Asia, Central, South Asia, South, and East Asia. Geographically, it is located to the north of H ...

. Lateral eastward spreading of this zone of thickened crust is impeded by the presence of the

South China Block The Yangtze plate, also called the South China block or the South China subplate, comprises the bulk of southern China. It is separated on the east from the Okinawa plate by a rift that forms the Okinawa Trough which is a back-arc basin, on the ...

and this causes clockwise rotation of the Sichuan–Yunnan block, accommodated by left-lateral

strike-slip In geology, a fault is a planar fracture or discontinuity in a volume of rock across which there has been significant displacement as a result of rock-mass movements. Large faults within Earth's crust result from the action of plate tectonic ...

faults on its eastern margin and right lateral strike-slip faults to the west.

Earthquake

The earthquake sequence started with two foreshocks at 22:09 (M5.5) and 22:23 (M3.9) on January 14. The mainshock, which occurred soon afterwards at 23:37, had an estimated magnitude of (ANSS), or . Based on the aftershock distribution, the earthquake was the result of rupture along a fault with a

strike Strike may refer to: People *Strike (surname) * Hobart Huson, author of several drug related books Physical confrontation or removal *Strike (attack), attack with an inanimate object or a part of the human body intended to cause harm * Airstrike, ...

of N50°W. The causative fault was most likely the right lateral Maweiqing fault, one of the faults that forms the western boundary of the Sichuan-Yunnan block.

Impact

The earthquake killed seven people and injured 2,528 others, 99 of them seriously, with 200,000 people displaced. Casualties were reduced as a foreshock forced many out of their homes before the mainshock hit shortly after. At least 659,644 homes were damaged, including 410,365 in

and 233,165 in

Dayao County Dayao County (; Chuxiong Yi script: , IPA：) is a county of northwestern Yunnan province, People's Republic of China, under the administration of Chuxiong Yi Autonomous Prefecture. Geography Dayao County is located in the northwest of Chuxiong ...

; 100,000 of the affected homes were heavily damaged or destroyed. Preliminary estimates put the cost of damage at $74 million. All 136 homes were damaged in the village of Piaolaqiao, with one third of the village's residents facing food shortages after the quake. Overall, the earthquake affected 74 townships in seven counties within two prefectures.

Aftermath and response

By 16 January, hundreds of tents were set up for displaced residents, with 2,000 more due to arrive by the next day. Soldiers had also been drafted in to help coordinate rescue efforts in

, near the epicenter. The

Hong Kong Red Cross The Hong Kong Red Cross (HKRC, ) is the national Red Cross society of Hong Kong as part of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement. Its head office is in West Kowloon. It was established officially on 12 July 1950 as a branch of ...

sent 10,000 coats, 10,000 cooking sets and 5,000 quilts and 150 packs of

rice Rice is a cereal grain and in its Domestication, domesticated form is the staple food of over half of the world's population, particularly in Asia and Africa. Rice is the seed of the grass species ''Oryza sativa'' (Asian rice)—or, much l ...

. The

Salvation Army The Salvation Army (TSA) is a Protestantism, Protestant Christian church and an international charitable organisation headquartered in London, England. It is aligned with the Wesleyan-Holiness movement. The organisation reports a worldwide m ...

planned to deliver 2,000 sleeping bags, cotton quilts and over 1,000 coats to Yunnan.

References

External links