On Today's Day: Mw7.2 Xingtai Earthquake, China

On today’s day in the year 1966, two major earthquakes struck the prefecture-level city of Xingtai, China, which were part of a sequence of major earthquakes that took place between March 8 and March 29, 1966. Xingtai is located in China’s northern province near Beijing.

The first earthquake in a sequence was of a magnitude 6.8 on the Richter scale in Longyao County and occurred in the early morning of March 8, 1966. It was followed by a sequence of five earthquakes above magnitude 6.0 that lasted until March 29, 1966. The strongest of these earthquakes had a magnitude of 7.2 and took place in the southeastern part of Ningjin County on March 22. The earthquakes' damage resulted in more than 8.064 fatalities, more than 38.000 people getting injured, and more than 5 million destroyed houses.

North China is a very earthquake-prone area on the Chinese mainland. In the time period from 1966 to 1976, which was also the time of the Great Cultural Revolution of China, it underwent several large earthquakes that caused significant damage:
- Mw7.2 1966 Xingtai earthquake (8,064 fatalities, with 38,000 injured people and more than 5 million houses destroyed);
- Mw 7.4 1969 Bohai earthquake (At least 10 fatalities, and 353 people getting injured. An estimated 15.190 homes got destroyed and a further 24.810 were damaged);
- Mw7.3 1975 Haicheng earthquake (1328 fatalities, over 27.000 people getting injured). A low-level alert was triggered by regional increases in seismicity (later recognized as foreshocks); and
- Mw7.8 1976 Tangshan earthquake (up to 655.000 fatalities, 700.000 getting injured. Nearly every building and structure in the city collapsed, wholly or partially, infrastructure was severely damaged, and essential services such as electric power, water supply, and communications were entirely knocked out).

Picture 1: A bridge that collapsed due to the Xingtai earthquakes. Picture from: China Virtual Museums Quake.