The 2009 Yunnan earthquake occurred with a
moment magnitude
The moment magnitude scale (MMS; denoted explicitly with or Mwg, and generally implied with use of a single M for magnitude) is a measure of an earthquake's magnitude ("size" or strength) based on its seismic moment. was defined in a 1979 paper ...
of 5.7 in
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 ...
,
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 ...
province, People's Republic of
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 ...
on 9 July.
At least one person died and over 300 were injured, with over 50 of these sustaining serious injuries.
Background and tectonics
At 11:19
UTC
Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) is the primary time standard globally used to regulate clocks and time. It establishes a reference for the current time, forming the basis for civil time and time zones. UTC facilitates international communica ...
(19:19
local time
Local time is the time observed in a specific locality. There is no canonical definition. Originally it was mean solar time, but since the introduction of time zones it is generally the time as determined by the time zone in effect, with daylight s ...
), a
magnitude 5.7 earthquake with an epicentre at occurred.
The epicentre was in Guantun, from the province's capital
Kunming
Kunming is the capital and largest city of the province of Yunnan in China. The political, economic, communications and cultural centre of the province, Kunming is also the seat of the provincial government. During World War II, Kunming was a Ch ...
and east north east of
Dali
Dali or DALI may refer to:
Art and popular culture
* Dali, a location in ''Final Fantasy IX''
* ''Dali'' (Dalida album) (1984)
* ''Dali'' (Ali Project album) (1994)
* Espace Dalí, Salvador Dalí's permanent exhibition in France
Religion
...
. The depth of the event was .
Eight
aftershock
In seismology, an aftershock is a smaller earthquake that follows a larger earthquake, in Epicenter, the same area of the Mainshock, main shock, caused as the displaced Crust (geology), crust adjusts to the effects of the main shock. Large earthq ...
s were recorded.
A
magnitude 5.0 aftershock occurred on July 10 at 09:02:04 UTC (17:02:04 local time). Its epicentre was located at .
In total, there were over 8 aftershocks.
Damage and casualties
The earthquake destroyed 10,000 houses and damaged a further 30,000. One person died
and over 300 people were injured, with over 50 suffering serious injuries.
[ Yunnan province's civil affairs department was dispatching 4,500 tents, and 3,000 quilts as part of the disaster relief efforts. Also, a coal mine collapsed in the epicentral area within 50 miles.]
See also
*List of earthquakes in 2009
Earthquakes in 2009 resulted in 1,853 fatalities. The 2nd Sumatra earthquake caused an estimated 1,117 deaths to that island, while other majors events struck Italy and Costa Rica. Also notable, the 2009 Samoa earthquake and tsunami registered ...
*List of earthquakes in China
This is a list of earthquakes in China, part of the series of list of disasters in China by death toll, lists of disasters in China. Earthquakes in the loess plateau where residents lived in yaodong caves tended to have big casualties, includin ...
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Yunnan earthquake, 2009
2009 Yunnan
2009 earthquakes
2009 disasters in China
Geography of Chuxiong Yi Autonomous Prefecture
Yao'an County
July 2009 in China