KEY POINTS
- Quakes are common in the Tibetan Plateau
- Thousands of people have lost lives in natural catastrophes in region
ISLAMABAD: Earthquakes are a recurring occurrence in western parts of China in the Tibetan Plateau.
According to Reuters, earthquakes in China are a result of the collision of India with the rest of Asia. The population in western China is less as compared to eastern China because of the hilly nature of the region. Implementation of building codes is also poor in western China.
The northern regions of eastern China are comparatively not as seismically active as the western areas of the country.
List of major earthquakes
December 1920: A magnitude 7.8 earthquake struck Haiyuan County and Ningxia and killed 265,000.
May 1927: A magnitude 7.6 earthquake killed 40,900 people in China.
August 1931: At least 10,000 people perished in an earthquake of 8.00 magnitude in Qinghai province.
August 1933: A magnitude 7.5 earthquake killed 9,000 people in Mao County and Sichuan
August 1950: A magnitude 8.6 earthquake took the lives of 4,000 people
August 1966: Hebei lost 8,064 residents to an earthquake of 6.8
May 1974: An earthquake of 6.8 magnitude hit China and killed 20,000 people.
July 1976: An earthquake of 7.2 magnitude killed more than 30,000 people.
November 1988: Yunnan was hit by an earthquake of 7.2 magnitude which resulted in the deaths of 939 people
February 2003: An earthquake of 6.3 magnitude hit China and killed 261 people.
May 2008: An earthquake of 7.9 magnitude left nearly 90,000 people dead, and missing in Sichuan province.
April 2010: Over 2,600 people perished in an earthquake of 7.1 magnitude in Qinghai province.
April 2013: A magnitude 7.0 earthquake took the lives of 196 people in Sichuan.
July 2013: A magnitude 6.6 earthquake killed 95 people in Gansu province.
August 2014: Yunnan province lost 617 people in an earthquake of 6.1 magnitude.
September 2022: A magnitude 6.8 earthquake once struck Sichuan and killed 93.
December 2023: A magnitude 6.2 An earthquake of 6.2 magnitude caused the death of at least 126 people in Gansu and Qinghai provinces.
