earthquake and wuhan

when the earthquake happened the day before yesterday, i was chatting with my friend on-line at that time. he told me that he felt the building was shaking and it last for seconds. he was in Hanyang that time, and he posted a message in QQ group, but no one replied him. i think the people in wuhan did not feel much about the earthquake at that time. i trust his feeling although there was no official report come out to confirm the location and magnitude of the earthquake. immediately i made a phonecall to my sister in wuhan, and she did not feel it at all. she told me she was sleeping at that time.

    i had experienced earthquake once when i was in my university. it was in the winter time of 2005, i was senior already. i remembered clearly it was in the morning, i was about to get out of my dorm to have my breakfast, it was just past eight o’clock. my roommate was sleeping at that time. suddenly i felt the door was shaking, and i heard of sound of metals just out of the dorm building. it last about six seconds. i found my roommate was even not waken up. i thought it must be an earthquake and i got out of the dorm building to protect myself. later my roommate told me that he felt that someone was shaking his bed when he was sleeping. he never thought that no one is so strong to shake his bed. one hour later we got the news: the earthquake happened in Jiujiang, a city on the border of hubei province and jiangsi province, east of wuhan.

    that is only one experience of mine related to earthquake. i think that is also the only one for most of the people who live in wuhan, because there is no major earthquake happened for more than 70 years.

    here is a list of the big earthquaked happened in wuhan,

jan. 1470 , wuchang and haiyang, 5 degrees.

1605 march or april, wuchang, 4.75 degrees

1605,june, wuchang, haiyang, 5 degrees 

1897 january, wuchang, hanyang, 5 degrees
1930 march, 4 degrees  

1932, influenced by the 6 degrees earthquake happened in Macheng , some people were injured and the houses were collapsed.

since then, there has been no major earthquake happened in wuhan.

i think the reason is because wuhan is in a relatively safe place, not located in the seismic belt.

we can see a map which identifies the main seismic belts in china.

at last i want to express my condolense to those people who were killed by the earthquake. and i hope the government can do their best to save more people from the ruined areas.