Intraplate earthquakes in North China - Intraplate Earthquakes - page 98

Figure 5.1 Topographic map of China and surrounding regions showing major active faults (thin
lines) and seismicity (dots). Blue dots indicate epicenters of historic earthquakes before 1900; red
dots indicate earthquakes during 1900-2010 (mostly instrumental records). Inset shows the scales
of earthquake magnitudes. The box shows North China. The barbed lines represent plate boundary
faults. For color version, see Plates section.

5.1 Introduction

In King Jie's 10th year of the Xia Dynasty (1767 BC), an earthquake interrupted the Yi and Lo rivers
and damaged houses in the capital city Zhengxuen.

In the second year of King Zhouyou (780 BC), an earthquake dried the Jin, Lo, and Wei rivers, and
caused landslides in the Qi mountains.

State Records: Zhou Dynasty

These are some of the earliest written records of earthquakes in China. The Chinese catalog
of historic earthquakes goes back

6 events
since 23 BC (Min et al ., 1995 ) . At least 13 of these events were catastrophic (M

3000 years, showing more than 1,000 M ≥

8).
The 1556 Huaxian earthquake reportedly killed 830,000 people, making it the deadliest
earthquake in human history (Min et al ., 1995 ) . Modern earthquakes in China are intense
and widespread. The 1976 Tangshan earthquake (Mw 7.8) killed

≥

242,000 people and

injured millions (Chen et al ., 1988 ) .
Most of these earthquakes occurred within the continental interior ( Figure 5.1 ) . In
western China (approximately west of 105

E), historic earthquake records are sparse, but
instrumentally recorded seismicity is intense. These earthquakes are directly related to the

°