Sichuan earthquake "facts" China 2008 eartquake

The earthquake with a magnitude of 7.9 in the Eastern Sichuan, western China on Monday, May 12, 2008 at 02:28 local time. It occurred at a depth of about 19 kilometers (11.8 miles). The earthquake destroyed many communities, leaving an estimated five million people homeless. Were badly damaged due to landslides and flooded rivers made the land upstream. The government estimated that killed about 70,000 people a direct result of the earthquake. It is expected that the disease and hunger to claim thousands of lives for several months after the earthquake due to hit supplies of clean drinking water and food. The quake was felt across China and other parts of Bangladesh, India, Japan, Mongolia, Nepal, Pakistan, Russia, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam. Several strong aftershocks caused extensive damage after the collapse of thousands of homes and killed thousands of people. Sichuan earthquake on May 12, 2008, occurred as a result of the movement to reverse hit north-east of a fault or defect on the sidelines of the North West direction from the Sichuan Basin. Epicenter of the earthquake and the coordination mechanism consistent with the existence of an event as a result of movement on the Longmenshan error or an error related to tectonically. Earthquake reflects the stresses of tectonic resulting from a convergence of crustal material slowly moving from the Tibetan plateau is high, and to the west, against the crust strong potential in the Sichuan Basin and South East China.On range, continental, and seismic activity in Central and East Asia is the result of convergence north of the Panel for the Panel, India against Eurasia, with a speed of about 50 mm / d. And large-scale convergence of plates that absorb the lifting of the Asian highlands and the movement of crustal material to the east away from the margin of Tibet progress Plateau.The northwest of the Sichuan Basin has previously devastating earthquakes. Killed earthquake measuring 7.5 on August 25, 1933, and more than 9,300 people.