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1976 Tangshan earthquake

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1976 Tangshan earthquake

The 1976 Tangshan earthquake (Chinese: 唐山大地震; pinyin: Tángshān dà dìzhèn; lit. 'Great Tangshan earthquake') was a Mw 7.6 earthquake that hit the region around Tangshan, Hebei, China, at 19:42:55 UTC on 27 July (03:42:55, 28 July local time). The maximum intensity of the earthquake was XI (Extreme) on the Mercalli scale. In minutes, 85 percent of the buildings in Tangshan collapsed or were rendered unusable, all services failed, and most of the highway and railway bridges collapsed or were seriously damaged. The official count stated 242,469 deaths, while historians accepted at least 300,000 died, making it the deadliest earthquake in recorded history (excluding the famine deaths from the 1556 Shanxi earthquake) and one of the worst disasters in China by death toll.

Infobox

UTC time
Doublet earthquake:
Local date
28 July 1976
Local time
Peking time:
Depth
A: 12.2 kmB: 16.7 km
Epicenter
mw- 39°38′N 118°06′E / 39.63°N 118.10°E / 39.63; 118.10 39°43′N 118°26′E / 39.72°N 118.44°E / 39.72; 118.44
Max. intensity
MMI XI (Extreme)
Casualties
242,469 (official)[a]

Tables

Official figures[c] · Death toll › Various official data
Severe
Severe
Locality
Severe
Deaths
Minor
Tangshan "City"
Tangshan "City"
Locality
Tangshan "City"
Deaths
148,022
Injuries
103,919
Injuries
257,384
Tangshan Prefecture
Tangshan Prefecture
Locality
Tangshan Prefecture
Deaths
69,210
Injuries
63,620
Injuries
284,079
Tianjin Municipality
Tianjin Municipality
Locality
Tianjin Municipality
Deaths
24,398
Injuries
8,262
Injuries
?
Rest of Hebei
Rest of Hebei
Locality
Rest of Hebei
Deaths
839
Injuries
?
Total
Total
Locality
Total
Deaths
242,469
Injuries
175,797
Injuries
541,463
Locality
Deaths
Injuries
Severe
Minor
Tangshan "City"
148,022
103,919
257,384
Tangshan Prefecture
69,210
63,620
284,079
Tianjin Municipality
24,398
8,262
?
Rest of Hebei
839
?
Total
242,469
175,797
541,463

References

  1. See the table on #Death toll
  2. Also known as "Great Tangshan earthquake" in English sources, e.g. the voluminous work edited by Housner & He (2002).
  3. Unless footnoted, this table is taken from Guo 2008, pp. 408–410.
  4. In 1976, the Tangshan county-level "city" spanned 1,090 km² (420 sq mi). Only 66 km² (25 sq mi) of which were downtown T
  5. The Tangshan City deaths is sometimes split as "135,919 residents (with local hukou) and 12,103 non-residents, which sum
  6. After administrative changes in 1982, then Tangshan prefecture (唐山地区) corresponds to modern Qinhuangdao and the far rura
  7. The Tangshan Prefecture deaths can be split as "69,065 residents (with local hukou) and 145 non-residents", which summed
  8. "167,539" is a commonly cited severely injured figure but it only counted those in Tangshan City and Prefecture. The tot
  9. Most casualties in Hebei outside Tangshan prefecture (modern Tangshan and modern Qinhuangdao) were in Langfang and Cangz
  10. "242,769" and "242,419" are two alternative number of total deaths commonly cited. However, most sources citing the abov
  11. ISC-EHB Event 711732 [IRIS].
    https://www.isc.ac.uk/cgi-bin/web-db-v4?event_id=711732&out_format=IMS1.0&request=COMPREHENSIVE
  12. ISC-EHB Event 711773 [IRIS].
    https://www.isc.ac.uk/cgi-bin/web-db-v4?event_id=711773&out_format=IMS1.0&request=COMPREHENSIVE
  13. Housner & He 2002, Prologue.
  14. Xia 2020, p. 79
  15. Wang 2016
  16. Jennings 1980, p. 69.
  17. Zhu 2002, p. 6.
  18. Butler, Stewart & Kanamori 1979, p. 207. See figure 12 (p. 218) for an illustration. See also Zhu 2002, p. 8, Guo 2002,
  19. Jennings 1980, p. 89.
  20. Lomnitz & Lomnitz 1978, p. 109; Jennings 1980, p. 88.
  21. Jennings 1980, p. 89, and see figure 4.17.
  22. Jennings 1980, pp. 88, 92.
  23. Lomnitz & Lomnitz 1978, p. 109.
  24. Zhu 2002, p. 8, and see Table 4, p. 12.
  25. Jennings 1980, p. 88, and see figure 15 in Guo 2002, p. 45.
  26. Jennings 1980, p. 75.
  27. Guo et al. 2022
  28. Zhen 2020
  29. Chen, Liu & Wang 2021
  30. Butler, Stewart & Kanamori 1979, pp. 217–218. See also Jennings 1980, figure 4.23, which plots damage as a function of e
  31. Jennings 1980, p. 19.
  32. Jennings 1980, p. 69; Yang 2002b, p. 176 [6].
  33. Yao 2002, p. 244 [74].
  34. Stoltman, Lidstone & Dechano 2004.
  35. Yang 2002b, p. 172, and see figure 2, p. 182. An isoseismal map can be found in the front matter of Volume 4 Archived 28
    https://authors.library.caltech.edu/26539/1/Tangshan/Volume4.0_front_matter.pdf
  36. Yang 2002b, p. 172.
  37. Mao, Liang & Cui 2002, p. 231
  38. Jennings 1980, p. 10.
  39. Yang 2002b, p. 180, Table 1.
  40. Xu 2002, p. 242.
  41. Zhao 2002, p. 626.
  42. Housner & He 2002, pp. 26–27; Wang, Cui & Liu 2002, p. 749.
  43. Zhao 2002, p. 627.
  44. Mi 2002, p. 765.
  45. Liao & Gu 2002, p. 1, and see figures 1 and 4, pp. 40 and 41.
  46. Liao & Gu 2002, p. 1.
  47. Liao & Gu 2002, figure 4.
  48. Liao & Gu 2002, p. 2.
  49. Liao & Gu 2002, figure 1.
  50. Liao & Gu (2002, pp. 20+) has pictures.
  51. Liao & Gu 2002, pp. 1, 2, 15–16, 18.
  52. Liao & Gu 2002, pp. 8–10.
  53. Liao & Gu 2002, p. 1. Strengthening is primarily a matter of "joining beam ends" securely so they do not pull apart, cru
  54. Liao & Gu 2002, pp. 1–2, 8.
  55. Wang, Cui & Liu 2002, p. 750.
  56. Tao & Wang 1996, pp. 104, 120
  57. Guo 2008, pp. 408–410.
  58. Yu et al. 2003, pp. 8.
  59. Guo 2008, pp. 408–410
  60. Hebei Province 1999, pp. 415
  61. Guo 2008, p. 409.
  62. Xinhua News Agency, 29 July 2017
  63. Xinhua News Agency
    https://web.archive.org/web/20080524204253/https://news.sohu.com/20060725/n244425705.shtml
  64. 中华网文史
    https://web.archive.org/web/20050729005751/http://news.china.com/zh_cn/history/all/11025807/20050727/12519124.html
  65. Spignesi (2004, pp. 48–49) wrote, "Dr. George Pararas-Carayannis, world-renowned earthquake and volcano authority, and a
  66. Disaster Pages of Dr. George P.C
    https://web.archive.org/web/20081011045437/http://www.drgeorgepc.com/Earthquake1976ChinaTangshan.html
  67. Journal of Tsunami Society International
    http://www.tsunamisociety.org/402Pararas-Carayannis.pdf
  68. UPI: Pacific Stars and Stripes, 7 August 1976, p. 11.
  69. New York Times
    https://web.archive.org/web/20180220020954/https://www.nytimes.com/1977/01/05/archives/quake-toll-in-china-put-at-655000-in-report-said-to-come-from-area.html
  70. Encyclopedia of Solid Earth Geophysics
  71. Whitham et al. 1976, p. 268.
  72. Wang et al. 2006, p. 779.
  73. Raleigh et al. (1977, .mw- }The link between politics and earthquake prediction is well expressed by the following state
  74. From a Xinhua News Agency press release published in all major Chinese newspapers 13 March 1975, quoted in Wang et al. 2
  75. Foreign Policy
    https://foreignpolicy.com/2025/11/04/china-trump-nuclear-weapons-testing-arsenal/
  76. Wang et al. 2006, Appendix E has a concise description of the Cultural Revolution.
  77. Raleigh et al. 1977, p. 266; Cha 1976, p. 7.
  78. Xiao 2013, p. 80.
  79. Li 2016, p. 420.
  80. Yeoh 2010, p. 273; Xiao 2013, p. 208.
  81. ANSS: Sichuan 1976 . See 1976 Songpan–Pingwu earthquake.
  82. Raleigh et al. 1977, pp. 258–259.
  83. Raleigh et al. 1977, pp. 259–260.
  84. "The Death of Mao: The Tangshan Earthquake and the Birth of the New China by James Palmer"
    https://www.thetimes.com/travel/destinations/asia-travel/china/the-death-of-mao-the-tangshan-earthquake-and-the-birth-of-the-new-china-by-james-palmer-cz9ngl637pt
  85. Jennings 1980, p. 77.
  86. Jennings 1980, pp. 84–85, and see figure 4.14.
  87. Jennings 1980, p. 84; Xing & Zou 2002, p. 88.
  88. Guo 2002, p. 27.
  89. Some say 1.8 Ga, others 2.5. See Kusky & Li 2003 and Kusky, Windley & Zhai 2007, p. 20 for details.
  90. Kusky, Windley & Zhai 2007, p. 3.
  91. Yang 2002a, p. 50.
  92. Kusky, Windley & Zhai 2007, p. 20.
  93. See figure 16 in Zhu 2002, p. 23, and figure 13 in Guo 2002, p. 43. The secondary quake occurred on a north oriented sec
  94. Guo 2002, pp. 30–31.
  95. Wang et al. 2006, p. 757
  96. Hammond 1976.
  97. Wang et al. 2006, p. 781.
  98. Wang et al. 2006, p. 777.
  99. Wang et al. 2006, p. 780.
  100. Kerr 1979, p. 543.
  101. Xie & Qu 2018, p. 5.
  102. Lomnitz & Lomnitz 1978, pp. 109–110.
  103. Lomnitz & Lomnitz (1978, p. 109) mention "the Lungling and Yenyuen earthquakes, both accurately predicted". See also Jen
  104. Jennings 1980, p. 6; Geller 1997, p. 434; ICEF 2011, p. 351.
  105. Scholz 1997.
  106. Wang et al. 2006, p. 785.
  107. See also Jennings 1980, pp. 64–67.
  108. Jennings 1980, p. 81.
  109. Bo 2010, Chapter 7.
  110. Bo 2010, p. 281.
  111. Bo 2010, p. 284.
  112. Chen & Wang 2010, p. 2844.
  113. Bo 2010, p. 282.
  114. Bo 2010, p. 283.
  115. Peng 2008, p. 9
  116. Chen & Wang 2010, p. 2847.
  117. Bo 2010, p. 279.
  118. Bo 2010, p. 286.
  119. Bo 2010, p. 287.
  120. Chen & Wang 2010, p. 2846.
  121. Chen & Wang 2010, p. 2846, citing a Chinese source.
  122. ICEF 2011, p. 351.
  123. "Watch Days of Fury (1979) on the Internet Archive"
    https://archive.org/details/days-of-fury-1979
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