Earthquake Risk, Assessment and Monitoring
A man walks on the rubble next to a damaged house following the earthquake that rocked Gansu’s Jishishan county, in Haidong, Qinghai province, China December 20, 2023.
Rescuers braved subfreezing temperatures to bring victims of an earthquake that shook a remote location in Gansu province, northwest China, to safety more than a day ago. Survivors faced months of uncertainty without a permanent place to stay.
A minute before midnight on Monday, a magnitude-6.2 earthquake rocked Jishishan county near the border straddling Gansu and Qinghai provinces, frightening locals to flee their homes into the cold. It also damaged roads, power and water lines, agricultural production facilities, and caused mudslides and land collapses.
As of 9 a.m. on Wednesday (0100 GMT), 782 people had been hurt and 113 people had been found dead in Gansu, according to the authorities. In the neighboring province of Qinghai, as of 5:30 a.m. on Wednesday, there were 198 injuries and 18 fatalities.
In Gansu, where rescue efforts came to an end on Tuesday afternoon, 78 people were discovered alive, according to Chinese media. As a months-long winter approached, attention turned to tending to the injured and resettling locals.
The status of the search in Qinghai was not immediately known.
Over 145,000 individuals were impacted by the more than 207,000 destroyed and over 15,000 collapsed dwellings in Gansu. More than 128,000 emergency supplies, including as folding beds, tents, comforters, and tent lights, were given, and the sufferers received food like instant noodles and steamed buns.
Geographically speaking, the earthquake-affected area is a transition zone between two plateaus, with “very complex” topography and terrain with altitudes varying from 1,800 to 4,300 meters (5,906 to 14,108 feet), according to CCTV.
The strong cold snap that has struck most of China since last week has made recovery following Monday night’s earthquake even more difficult. On Tuesday night, the temperature in the Gansu area around the epicenter of the earthquake dropped to almost minus 15 degrees Celsius (5 degrees Fahrenheit).
Researchers have told the local media that anyone buried in rubble and exposed to temperatures below 10 degrees Celsius without assistance face the risk of hypothermia and may not survive for more than five to ten hours, if they are not hurt.
Du Haiyi reported from Qinghai’s earthquake-stricken Haidong that his family’s house had entirely collapsed.
The 21-year-old told Reuters that he had rescued his 16-year-old sister and mother from under rubble on the night of the earthquake.
My parents were pulled out from underneath this, but I don’t know how. We ran to wherever we could
Du , an infrequent laborer
Du, claimed that his family of seven had taken refuge in a tent given by the local government and had slept outside without food or proper coverings.
Homeless in Winter
The only thing left to those who were displaced by Monday’s earthquake were to assemble in fields and burn wheat straw to stay warm. According to Beijing Youth Daily, one family of seven spent the night in a car while the elderly and young were given priority when it came to emergency tents.
The earthquake struck 22 towns and villages within 50 km of the epicentre on the Qinghai province side; two of those communities sustained the most damage.
Twenty persons were reported missing from two villages in Haidong’s Minhe County earlier this week after a mudslide rolled through, half-burying numerous buildings in brown silt. Mud obstructed major roadways, complicating search and rescue operations and efforts to relocate residents, state television reported, displaying footage of bulldozers clawing through mud and rubble.
We have prepared coats with extra cotton, like military coats, and some things to keep warm like heating equipment
Rescue volunteer , Wu
Provinces like Gansu, which are located on the northeastern edge of the tectonically active Qinghai-Tibetan plateau, frequently experience earthquakes. 2008’s magnitude 8.0 earthquake in Sichuan, China, was the deadliest earthquake to strike the country in recent memory, killing around 70,000 people.
Aftershocks
Concerns about more than just the bitter cold were plaguing rescuers and working committees evaluating the situation.
Strong aftershocks of magnitude 5 are still expected in the area in the coming days, according to a thorough analysis conducted by the Gansu Provincial Seismological Bureau. This research was based on the characteristics of the Monday earthquake, historical seismic activity, and other factors.
The deputy head of the bureau was quoted by Chinese news outlet Xinhua as adding that the aftershocks will be continuously monitored in order to provide early warnings.
Volunteer Wu said that tents were provided to villagers whose homes had sustained significant damage. He expressed concern of aftershocks.
The China Earthquake Networks Center reported that as of early Wednesday, there have been two aftershocks measuring 4.0 and above and eight measuring 3.0 and above.
Experts estimate the 10 km (6.2 miles) of depth at which the earthquake in Gansu’s Jishishan county was recorded to be shallow. A senior engineer from the China Seismological Network Center was cited by Xinhua in an article about how earthquakes with shallow focal points can quickly cause significant damage to the ground.
