1981 Dawu earthquake
Encyclopedia
On 24 January 1981 at 5:13 a.m. China Standard Time (23 January 1981 at 21:13 UTC), Sichuan
, China, was struck by a large earthquake known as the 1981 Dawu earthquake. Registering a Richter scale magnitude of 6.8, the earthquake killed about 150 and injured roughly 300 more. It caused much damage within a close range to its epicenter.
China has a long, catastrophic history of earthquakes that extends from at least 1290 AD to the present day.
, killing roughly 100,000 people. The next great earthquake was probably the 1556 Shaanxi earthquake, the most devastating earthquake of all time. Roughly 830,000 were killed by the event. Other earthquakes in 1917, 1918, 1920, 1923, 1925, 1927, 1931, 1932, 1933, 1948, 1950, 1966, 1966, 1969, 1970, 1974, 1975, 1976 killed more than one thousand people. Since 1981, earthquake fatalities have diminished greatly, though have not been stopped. As recently as 2008, an earthquake in Sichuan
killed nearly 90,000 people.
in Sichuan. Its official magnitude was 6.8 and its surface wave magnitude reached 6.6.
A moderately well controlled focal mechanism
indicates that the earthquake was probably a result of left lateral strike-slip faulting on the Daofu fault. The Daofu fault forms part of the Xianshuihe fault zone, which experienced a sequence of four earthquakes greater than 6.0 between 1973 and 1982, with each event triggering the next in the sequence by changing the stress state. A 44 km surface rupture has been reported for the 1981 earthquake.
Sichuan
' , known formerly in the West by its postal map spellings of Szechwan or Szechuan is a province in Southwest China with its capital in Chengdu...
, China, was struck by a large earthquake known as the 1981 Dawu earthquake. Registering a Richter scale magnitude of 6.8, the earthquake killed about 150 and injured roughly 300 more. It caused much damage within a close range to its epicenter.
China has a long, catastrophic history of earthquakes that extends from at least 1290 AD to the present day.
Background
China has an extensive history of catastrophic earthquakes that ranges back to 1290. The first verified earthquake took place in Chih-liHebei
' is a province of the People's Republic of China in the North China region. Its one-character abbreviation is "" , named after Ji Province, a Han Dynasty province that included what is now southern Hebei...
, killing roughly 100,000 people. The next great earthquake was probably the 1556 Shaanxi earthquake, the most devastating earthquake of all time. Roughly 830,000 were killed by the event. Other earthquakes in 1917, 1918, 1920, 1923, 1925, 1927, 1931, 1932, 1933, 1948, 1950, 1966, 1966, 1969, 1970, 1974, 1975, 1976 killed more than one thousand people. Since 1981, earthquake fatalities have diminished greatly, though have not been stopped. As recently as 2008, an earthquake in Sichuan
2008 Sichuan earthquake
The 2008 Sichuan earthquake or the Great Sichuan Earthquake was a deadly earthquake that measured at 8.0 Msand 7.9 Mw occurred at 14:28:01 CST...
killed nearly 90,000 people.
Characteristics
The epicenter was pinpointed to Dawu CountyDawu County, Sichuan
Dawu County is a county of Sichuan Province, China. It is under the administration of the Garzê Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture.In January 1981 it was struck by an earthquake....
in Sichuan. Its official magnitude was 6.8 and its surface wave magnitude reached 6.6.
A moderately well controlled focal mechanism
Focal mechanism
The focal mechanism of an earthquake describes the inelastic deformation in the source region that generates the seismic waves. In the case of a fault-related event it refers to the orientation of the fault plane that slipped and the slip vector and is also known as a fault-plane solution...
indicates that the earthquake was probably a result of left lateral strike-slip faulting on the Daofu fault. The Daofu fault forms part of the Xianshuihe fault zone, which experienced a sequence of four earthquakes greater than 6.0 between 1973 and 1982, with each event triggering the next in the sequence by changing the stress state. A 44 km surface rupture has been reported for the 1981 earthquake.