Living with Earthquakes - Earthquake Engineering for Structural Design - page 46

(b)

Figure 2.8 1964 Alaskan earthquake. (a) Location of epicenter and tsunami;
(b) Bridge damage on the Cooper River ( NGDC, nd, USGS, nd)

the Northern wall of Mount Huascaran, inducing a catastrophic avalanche of rocks,
mud and snow which buried the towns of Yungay and Ranrahirca in only three
minutes. The government of Peru has forbidden the excavation of the area where
the city of Yungay was buried, declaring it a national cemetery.
Considered by many to be the deadliest earthquake of 20

th

Century, the 1976
China Tangshan earthquake (Fig. 2.9) (also known as the Great Tangshan
earthquake) (RMS, 2006, Wikipedia, nd) brought devastation to many areas in
North-western China. The quake occurred when a 150 km portion of the Tan-Lu
fault system broke, releasing enough energy to trigger a magnitude 8.0. It is very
interesting to notice that this very catastrophic earthquake occurred in an area far
from the tectonic plate borders. The area experienced 10km of extensive surface
faulting which ran through downtown Tangshan, with horizontal displacements up
to 1.5 m. The densely populated, industrial coal-mining city of Tangshan was
almost completely destroyed. The event also caused major damage in the city of
Tianjin located 100 km Southwest of Tangshan and moderate damage in Beijing,
located approximately 140 km to the West. It is believed to be the largest
earthquake of the 20

th

Century for the number of deaths. Due to the earthquake's
occurrence in the middle of the night, the damage caused a very high number of
fatalities among the inhabitants of Tangshan city and surrounding communities.
The first earthquake was followed by a major 7.8 magnitude aftershock some 16
hours later, increasing the total of deaths. The official death count was