Haiyuan Earthquake (1920)

The 1920 Haiyuan earthquake, usually referred to as the Kansu earthquake by contemporary Western sources, was one of the greatest earthquakes on record, and the fifth deadliest. It struck on December 16, 1920, with an epicenter in Haiyuan County, in what is now Ningxia Province (which was then part of the province of Kansu), in China. Estimates of the magnitude range from about 7.8 to 8.5 on the Richter scale; the larger number is used by today's Chinese sources. The aftershocks lasted for three years.

In Haiyuan County alone, 73,000 people were killed. Destruction of the maximum intensity (XII on the Mercalli scale) was felt in the Lijunbu-Haiyuan-Ganyanchi area. Another 30,000 were killed in nearby Guyuan County, with major damage and casualties in seven provinces and regions. Effects were felt from Inner Mongolia to the center of Sichuan Province, and from the Yellow Sea to Qinghai Province—an enormous stretch of land. Massive landslides buried whole villages; disrupted earth raced at locomotive speeds for miles, utterly destroying and burying everything in its path with a force equivalent to demolition explosives. Such landslides accounted for most of the damage.

Ningxia Province had many steep slopes with much stacked-up earth to be toppled over. Structural damage was massive and widespread, and many rivers were dammed by debris or changed course as the earth shifted. One of the deadliest natural disasters on [Page 263]record, the Haiyuan quake ultimately claimed at least 200,000 lives.

A predominantly agricultural region, most of Haiyuan's residents had already turned in for the night when the quake began around 8 P.M. This spared some, who may have been more vulnerable had they been outside working in the open land, while dooming others who died in their beds. The landslides continued for weeks after the quake, much of the disrupted land having fallen into unstable arrangements, which only needed time to topple them. Cracks in the ground continued to form throughout the affected area, and hundreds of miles of faults were left behind throughout the most affected regions. As far away as Norway, seiches—tall stationary waves caused by the vibrations—were reported as a result of the quake. Apart from the immediate casualties and injuries, long-term effects of the earthquake—which remains a popular one for study because of its magnitude—included food and water shortages, as well as extensive property damage and displacement of a portion of the population.