China Hit by 7.9-Magnitude Quake; More Than 8700 Die (http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aUSDZXk_LOv4&refer=home)

May 12 (Bloomberg) -- China was hit by a magnitude-7.9 earthquake, the nation's strongest in 58 years, killing more than 8,700 people. The temblor in Sichuan province shook buildings in Beijing, more than 1,500 kilometers (930 miles) away.

The quake struck at 2:28 p.m., 10 kilometers deep and 90 kilometers west-northwest of the central city of Chengdu, followed by aftershocks including a magnitude-6 quake 15 minutes later, the U.S. Geological Survey said. Chengdu, home to 11 million people, is the capital of Sichuan, site of 40 percent of China's gas deposits and its largest panda reserve.

``The epicenter of today's quake was shallow, which means it released more destructive energy,'' Zhang Guomin, a researcher at the China Seismology Bureau, told the state-run Xinhua News Agency. ``We have to guard against mudslides and collapsing buildings.''

The death toll in the province is at least 8,700, Xinhua said, with as many as 5,000 killed and 10,000 injured in one county, Beichuan. Rescuers recovered at least 50 bodies from the debris of a high school in the city of Dujiangyan, about 100 kilometers from the epicenter, Xinhua said. As many as 900 students were buried in the rubble.

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I wonder what our response will be?

Ours, as in Sciforums? None, apparently. We are nonchalant. "8,700 what you say? Oh right. It's a number I find hard to picture."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/may/12/china

Photos posted on the internet revealed arms and a torso sticking out of the wreckage of the school as dozens of people scrambled to free the students using small mechanical winches or their bare hands.

Too many natural disasters.

:yawn:

Too many natural disasters.

The end times are upon us.

The end times are upon us.

It has been upon us ever since we learned to speak....:D

No, I meant what is USA plan since we borrow money from them....

It has been upon us ever since we learned to speak....:D

No, I meant what is USA plan since we borrow money from them....

Borrow more money of course

I thought I was having a bad day.

Too many hydropower stations built on the upper Yangtze River cause the earthquake | ZAOBAO...

Too many hydropower stations built on the upper Yangtze River cause the earthquake | ZAOBAO...

That is possible as the weight distribution changes. To be sure, if we has stress sensors before and after the dams were built...we would know. How about China's massive building infrastrutures? Are the material local or brought in from a distance to change the weight dynamics.....

It could also be the recent hurricane.

How about China's massive building infrastrutures? Are the material local or brought in from a distance to change the weight dynamics.....
Just wish the CCP be "practical and realistic","Shi shi qiu shi"!

They keep saying that there are 900 student under the rubble in one school. But they never mention the teachers, I assume that is at least 50 teacher!

Australia has already started aid efforts in the area as well as offering civilan and millertry assests if they are required. Unfortnatly its the weather rather than anything else stopping aid efforts this time because helicopters cant get into the areas. This means that the nessary heavy equiptment for lifting the concreat ect isnt yet avilable and chinesse millarty personal are basically having to just use there hands to clear the rubble.

It is my hunch that the disasters will increase in intensity and frequency. Where we live, we have been watering the yard for the last ten years to make sure the plants do not die. This year, it is so wet that we did not. There is flooding in the area 50 KM out of here.

The number of deaths in the earthquake in southwestern China climbed to 15,000 with thousands more still buried under rubble. Rescue workers continued to search for survivors and carried a victim out of the rubble in Mianzhu, in Sichuan Province. The Chinese government also reported that nearly 400 dams may have been damaged by the earthquake, and soldiers were sent to plug cracks in one upriver from Dujiangyan.

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2008/05/14/nytfrontpage/23224292.JPG

Evacuees from Beichuan walked along a damaged road.

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/packages/images/photo/2008/05/13/0513-QUAKE/23203332.JPG

Destruction in Djuiangyan, the epicenter of the earthquake.

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/packages/images/photo/2008/05/13/0513-CHINA/23202568.JPG

Whats interesting is that the US media stations are all reporting how bravely the US military is distributing tons of rice to Myanmar...and nothing of any help whatsoever to China at all...they dont even mention anyone dying there

Perhaps because, China mobilized over 30,000 troops to help and US did not know what to do in Katrina disaster. USA is a begger that borrows money from China to run its government. What USA can offer? Stupidity?

Whats interesting is that the US media stations are all reporting how bravely the US military is distributing tons of rice to Myanmar...and nothing of any help whatsoever to China at all...they dont even mention anyone dying there
Retard. The disaster in China is all over the US News. The US government, along with the governments of all industralized nations, have offered to help in any way they could. China has a vast military that is dealing with the earthquake. Foreign workers that don't speak the language would most likely just be in the way

Perhaps because, China mobilized over 30,000 troops to help and US did not know what to do in Katrina disaster. USA is a begger that borrows money from China to run its government. What USA can offer? Stupidity?
Why thank you for offering your stupidity, kmguru.

Perhaps because, China mobilized over 30,000 troops to help and US did not know what to do in Katrina disaster. USA is a begger that borrows money from China to run its government. What USA can offer? Stupidity?

USA has only fake freedom to offer backed up by their political agendas

Bush did send half a million immediately. You think we want to jeopardize our cozy relationship with China?

Half a million is too low. Ten million would have been a good start. Fifty would have been better since we borrow billions....from them

"A new analysis of the setting for last month's devastating earthquake in China by a team of geoscientists at MIT shows that the quake resulted from faults with little seismic activity, and that similar events in that area occur only once in every 2,000 to 10,000 years, on average."

Read more (http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2008/quake-china-0630.html)