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School Seismology :: Blog :: China earthquake 12.5.08 Mw=7.8 or Mw=7.9

May 12, 2008


School Seismology - Paul Denton

China earthquake 12.5.08 Mw=7.8 or Mw=7.9

A large earthquake (reported by USGS as Mw=7.8 or 7.9 Ms=8.0 or Mb=7.1 reported magnitude has been upgraded from 7.8 to 7.9) hit China this morning. Earthquakes in China are potentially devastating, initial reports on the BBC suggested that this was a sparsley populated area and many buildings in cities nearby were evacuated no casualties had been reported by(09:30). UPDATE by 5pm there are reports of 8000 fatalaties (including an entire school). This number of casualties is only likely to increase as rescuers reach the affected areas. The event was spotted by George Marshall at Robert Smyth school on his seismometer before he checked the news. The signal at KEYW shows P(06:39) PP(06:42) S(06:49) SS(06:53) Surface Waves(7am onwards). The Surface waves registered near the maximum possible on the SEP system (30,000 counts) giving a an estimate of surface wave magnitude >8.5. If you did not record this event then your station is not working. more info on this event at http://earthquake.usgs.gov/eqcenter/recenteqsww/Quakes/us2008ryan.

Keywords: CHINA, Earthquake, KEYW

Posted by School Seismology - Paul Denton

Comments

  1. This is the trace from WINWM just south of Birmingham. We also got a count of almost 30,000.

    It's good to see a trace like this, but it's going to be a human tragedy.

    http://www.scispace.net/daveb/files/-1/632/China+earthquake.JPG

    Dave Butler on Monday, 12 May 2008, 18:03 BST # |

  2. As the events of the day unfolded and the casualty list grew from an initial count of zero 9at 09:30 to over 8000 by 5pm I was reminded of the most penetrating question ever asked of a physics teacher "Sir, when there is a big earthquake are you happy or sad" (asked by a young student of Stewart Bullen's many years ago). This morning when I first saw the email about this event I thought "Oh No" because big earthquakes in China have a record of causing massive casualties. I was initially reassured by the BBC, but as the true extent of this tragedy unfolded I became dismayed and saddened by the tragedy of the event.

    Paul Denton on Monday, 12 May 2008, 19:43 BST # |

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