Earthquakes - Extreme Events: A Physical Reconstruction and Risk Assessment - page 146

Table 6.3 Deaths from earthquakes

Death toll Location Year

830 000 Shensi, China 1556

300 000 Calcutta, India 1737

250 000 Tangshan, China 1976

200 000 Kansu, China 1920

143 000 Tokyo, Japan 1923

100 000 Chihli, China 1290

80 000 Caucasia, Shemaka 1667

75 000 Messina, Italy 1908

70 000 Northern Peru 1960

60 000 Cilicia, Asia Minor 1268

50 000 Bam, Iran 2003

45 000 Corinth, Greece 856

25 000 Armenia, Soviet Union 1988

700 San Francisco, USA 1906

toll exceeded 50 000. This earthquake, which struck the city of Bam, measured
only 6.3 on the Richter scale. Despite its relatively moderate magnitude, the
2003 Iran earthquake ranks as the 11th worst earthquake in terms of human
impacts (loss of life) over the last 1100 years (Table 6.3).
Building collapse and fire are two of the main causes of death during and in
the aftermath of earthquakes. Buildings are often designed to withstand earth-
quakes in higher income nations where the earthquake hazard is high but this
is often not the case in poorer countries and those that usually experience low
seismic activity. It is often in these latter locations that earthquakes result in the
greatest loss of human lives. One of the worst earthquakes in recent times, in
termsofloss of human lives, occurred in Tangshan in China in 1976. Although
an earthquake 18 months earlier had been successfully predicted and the city
evacuated, there were no known clear signs of this impending earthquake. A
quarter of a million people were killed due to building collapse and the fires
that followed (Robinson, 1993).
Artificial dams have been known to cause earthquakes. One of the most severe
earthquakes following the construction of a dam took place in Koyna in India
in 1967. This is an area of generally low seismicity but tremors became a fre-
quent occurrence after 1962 when dam construction began. In 1967, a number
of sizeable earthquakes occurred prior to an intensity X earthquake on the mod-
ified Mercalli scale. The earthquake damaged buildings and killed more than
200 people (Robinson, 1993).