Deadly earthquake near Minxian, Gansu, China - at least 95 killed and +2395 injured - Update July 25

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Update July 27 16:01 UTC : 21 people have been killed yesterday by torrential rainstorms in quake disaster area in Gansu. This midery is just local news in China. Nobody in the world is still interested in this increasing dead toll. NO images or video on TV. Media can be cruel for poor people.

Update July 27 10:45 UTC : A new earthquake with epicenter approx. 180 km to the South of the M6.6 earthquake has injured 13 people, collapsed and damaged homes. Bad luck for the people there as bad weather is still responsible for many new landslides. Roads got blocked and telecommunications were down (again). Hard to say at this point whether the earthquake occurred on the same fault or another one, but we are almost 100% sure that there is a link in between both.

Update 26th July 17:16 UTC : The number of injured people was again raised. At least 2395 people suffered different kinds of injuries, among them 720 who were treated in hospitals. (60 already left the hospital)
Note: These are only the number of earthquake injuries. People, who were injured in the landslides, which occurred later (see below), are not counted here.

Important update 09:38 UTC : Xinhua news reports 9 people dead and 4 missing in new landslides :
Nine people are buried and four are missing after two separate landslides in northwest China's Gansu Province on Thursday, local authorities said Friday.
A rain-triggered landslide happened at about 9:30 a.m. in Nanyu Village, Niangniangba Township, Qinzhou District of Tianshui City burying 13 people. Four have been rescued but nine are still buried, according to the provincial emergency response office. Four people are still missing after a landslide in neighboring Yongguang Village that occurred at about 10 a.m., according to the office.
Roads linking the seat of Niangniangba Township to the places where the landslides happened have been damaged by floods. Rescue work is under way.

Image courtesy and copyright kaixian.tv

Important CATDAT update July 25 10:46 UTC :
* 117 towns – 1163 villages – 77,799 households and 323933 people have been affected
* 200,351 people have been temporarily relocated
* 45,998 rooms (10,065 households affected) collapsed
* 52,099 rooms (17,229 households affected) were severely damaged and 99,067 rooms (29,062 households affected) were slightly damaged.
* The direct economic damage is around 5.68 billion CNY (around 900 million USD).
* Minxian has around 2.64 billion CNY damage and Zhangxian around 2.41 billion CNY (showing the difference between the two counties). All other locations have less than 170 million CNY each.
A full report will be made once the economic damage values solidify.

Update July 25 09:34 UTC : A video shows what probably is the 200 meter wide landslide who buried 4 houses and killed 12 people. Vast masses of soil have broken off and have buried the houses. Dramatic footage. At the bottom side of the video you can still see some remaining walls of the houses. In hilly areas with soft soil, people should also include a safe evacuation location away from a potential landslide risk.

Update July 25 08:02 UTC : The number of injured people, who were treated in hospital, was raised to 1461.

Update July 25 09:20 UTC : The Chinese Gansu and National seismological bureaus have started post-earthquake scientific work. They are mapping landslides, traces of fault rupture etc. All this work will be used to better map the risks of future earthquakes and to strengthen the construction guidelines in the future.

Image courtesy of the Gansu Seismological bureau - Major Disaster and Emergency expedition inspection points
a. Yongguang Village landslide and soil slip; b. Yongguang Village, soil slip; c. slope failure; d. Country Road on both sides slope failure;
e. HUANG Gui collapse; f. easternmost north branch faults (Zhu Ma Beach) topography; g. Zhu Ma Beach fault profile

Update July 24 13:46 UTC : A very good English spoken Al Jazeera video showing the daily living circumstances of the Gansu Minxian people.

Update July 24 09:47 UTC : The map below, published by the Chinese seismological authorities, shows the MMI VIII (dark red) hardest hit zone. The destruction in the MMI VIII is huge. The MMI VII (very strong shaking) is also responsible for a lot of misery. Further away damage is still present but not as cruel as in the dark red area. The red lines on the map are the mapped faults. The Yellow dot is the epicenter or breaking point. Below the Intensity map, the focal mechanism of this earthquake as reported by USGS

Update July 24 09:17 UTC : The Gansu seismological bureau has released some specifics about this earthquake. Specialized independent technical teams are currently assessing what exactly happened. These teams operate independent from the Relief and Rescue teams. Some of their conclusions :
- The most severe damage was inflicted in a zone of 1 to 2 km in width
- Field workers have not yet located the surface rupture zone
- 2 massive landslides are responsible for the dead of at least 12 people. The smallest of the 4 (still 200 meter wide) destroyed 4 houses killing 12 people living in them
- smaller landslides were responsible for a alot of damage to roads, farms, houses, terrace field, etc.
- even houses build with a reasonable good earthquake resistance suffered damage in the epicenter are due to the foundations.
- Most of the adobe houses collapsed near the epicenter while brick houses suffered less collapses but merely cracks
- this was a poor underdeveloped mountainous area
- 2 bridges have collapsed

a very large landslide

A totally destroyed house

Update July 23 07:57 UTC : We have unfortunately to report that the last missing person has been found dead, which brings the total fatalities to 95. ER thinks that the only way this number may increase is that severely injured people may not survive at the end and that some remote villages have not been reached by rescue personnel.
In a recebt note a report showed that army troops have been hiking for many hours to reach completely destroyed villages. These villages are small rural settlements where most of the houses are made from adobe. Adobe houses are like carton during an earthquake.
What looks like a long time is only 40 hours after the quake hit. In this period army, police, fire department, staff and employess from many specialties like transport and agriculture have done and are doing an extraordinary job to bring rescue and relief to the quake damaged area. They still have a lot of work todo and getting relief goods to the needed is still a problematic affair.

Update July 23 07:57 UTC :
The Gansu seismological bureau released the following data
- The death toll has unfortunately climbed to 94
- 1 person is still missing
- 1001 people have been treated for different earthquake related injuries, some of them serious

Update 23:11 UTC : No new data at the moment as we are living through the Chinese night. We expect more data and hopefully no more fatalities during the Chinese morning hours.

Update 17:13 UTC : 2 videos who are illustrating perfectly what we are reporting since 18 hours.

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Update 16:59 UTC : The Chinese Academy of Sciences has performed a rapid remote sensing survey of the area affected by the earthquake which results in 16,340 square kilometers! This area has a population of 900,000.

Important Update 16:43 UTC : The provincial earthquake administration has released the following updated data (20:00 local) :
- fatalities and missing : unchanged
- injured : 628 people
- 22 counties affected
- 204 towns / villages affected
- 5,786 collapsed rooms
- Lanzhou Military Region sent 1322 military personnel in active duty
- Militia and reserve forces 1428 people
- medical and epidemic prevention unit : 65 people
- two helicopters have arrived and perform disaster relief missions
- 1620 armed police and rescue forces were dispatched
- 25 mobile telecommunications in 7 towns have been damaged. 4 are being repaired and are functioning again. Work is going ahead on 21 others.
- Relief goods are currently distributed and consist of food, tents, quilts, cotton-padded clothes, etc
- great work has already been done and will go ahead the following hours, days and even weeks

Image courtesy Gansu Earthquake bureau

Update 13:47 UTC :
- 2 new fatalities have been reported from Longnan, bringing the total on 89 people

Update 13:47 UTC :
- The death toll has unfortunately climbed to 87.
- 5 people are recorded as missing
- 593 people have been treated for different earthquake related injuries

Update 13:46 UTC : Good and important news from the earthquake region. The ministry of transportation has ended all repair work at the National and Provincial roads in the earthquake region. This will enable relief and rescue trucks to transport the necessary equipment closer to the epicenter area.

Update 12:51 UTC : Something ER just learned now in reading the earthquake responsive : Veterinary emergency task group that works closely together with the Ministry of agriculture to assess asap all animal related topics, like prevent dead animals becoming sources sickness, getting abandoned animals to their owner, helping farmers manage their stock. This service is extremely important in rural areas where animals are often the only wealth of the owner. The teams include also veterinarians.

Update 12:15 UTC : Just like it happened in the Sichuan earthquake a couple of months ago, the Central Disaster Management team has taken over the lead in the rescue and relief efforts. Premier Li Keqying will overview personally every effort going on for rescue and relief. Earthquakes in China are divided into different categories. Some do only need local county response, others Province and the very big ones are managed by the Central Government.
An earthquake which is managed buy the Central Bejing Government has all possible power to engage whatever means possible. Army, police even temporarily allocation of civilian aircraft lies in their power.
We can make sure to our readers that this response is by far the most efficient in the world. Will it be perfect ? Never, but since we cover almost every earthquake in the world who needs assistance, we know what we are talking about. Congratulations to the Chinese response teams.

Premier Li Keqying on his way to the recent Sichuan earthquake to manage relief and rescue efforts

Update 11:19 UTC : A video from a China News channel with a reporter in the earthquake damaged areas (can be slow to load)

Important Update 10:22 UTC :
Sad to report that the victim numbers are increasing by the hour (these are all "at least" numbers):
- 75 people are now confirmed as being killed
- 14 have been recorded as missing
- 584 people are being treated for all kinds of injuries
- Chinese seismologists have said that the shaking intensity near the epicenter must have been VIII or "severe shaking"

Update 10:30 UTC : The experts of the China Earthquake Network have given more details about the technicalities behind the quake. They speak about the influence of stronger earthquakes the last 10 years on the faults that triggered this earthquake. The fault is likely a North South direction fault. Ano no major earthquake happened in this area since 1900 (see also our bottom map), stress has accumulated and has been released now. Perfectly normal are telling the scientists. 405 aftershocks so far, some of them +5. They expect this to go on for at least a week with +5 still possible. For that reason they ask people to be super-careful and not to live in damaged houses. For those camping in the open, they ask people to be careful and look at the terrain at all sides, mainly to avoid secondary geological elements like landslides, flash floods, etc.

Update 10:15 UTC : To imagine better the destruction the earthquake has inflicted, the picture below.
At least 14 people are still missing.

Update 10:00 UTC : Weather during and immediately after an earthquake is incredibly important both for the chance on landslides and the way rescue has to be organized and relief goods to be distributed. Bernhard Mühr from KIT Karlsruhe has made a short study on what to expect in the earthquake area until the end of July. The conclusion of this in-depth weather forecast : very good considering the monsoon period.

Brief Meteorological and Climatological Overview
Minxian and Zhangxian Districts, Gansu, China
Issued: Monday, July 22, 2013
Climatological Overview

There is a strong gradient in precipitation from Lantschau southward. The districts hit by the earthquake, Minxian and Zhangxian, expect significantly more rain than Lantschau. The monthly rain amounts during the summer months are about twice as much (~100-150 mm).
The districts in many places have rugged terrain, narrow valleys are located between mountain ranges that rise to more than 3000 meters.
Monsoon rains often are associated with thunderstorms and are of great intensity. These downpours frequently lead to sudden rise of river levels, flooding and might trigger landslides.

Long term average (1961-1990) mean of rain in July in south-east asia. Red rectangle indicates the earthquake region. Source: www.wettergefahren-fruehwarnung.de, Data source: Climate Research Unit

Rain forecast
The latest GFS-model run (July 22, 2013, 00 UTC) doesn’t show much rain for the next 8 days in the affected area. Widespread and large rain amounts are not to be expected. However, in unstable monsoon airmasses localized rain areas and thunderstorms might occur any time. Their intensity can be large and thus cause problems with river levels and landslides at places.

RaiRRain forecast: Accumulated rain during the next 8 days until July 30, 2013. In the region hit by the earthquake (rectangle) large and widespread rain amounts are not very likely until end of month.
Source: www.wettergefahren-fruehwarnung.de; Data source: GFS model run, July 22, 2013, 00 UTC

Update 09:34 UTC : The number of injured persons has increased to 462 (from 412)
As we have expected it fropm almost immediately after the earthquake hit, landslides have also been triggered. At least 10 houses have been buried in Meixian, Minxian county.

Update 08:51 UTC : Chinese are far better pupils if it comes to earthquake preparedness than most other countries in the world. One example : once out of the building, most people evacuate to the middle of the street or in open places.

Update 08:47 UTC : A picture we will see more and more in the future. Death toll will decrease considerably in the future due to earthquake resistant (new) houses and apartment buildings. The villages in the rural areas do not have the money to build this way and people are in great majority still living in very old primitive houses. Conclusion : less and less fatalities in (modern) cities and only a fraction less in rural areas.

Update 08:39 UTC : If ever you have visited the terracotta army in Xi'An (like me) : this earthquake was well felt in Xi'An too. Distance from Epicenter to Xi'An : +300 km. The bottom message is : you are probably traveling around the world and arrive in earthquake countries which you are not aware off. Be always prepared for an earthquake and know what to do.

Update 08:31 UTC :
- 27,300 people have been relocated so far from Minxian County.
- Damage we can confirm so far : 1200 rooms collapsed, 21,064 severely damaged rooms+ we are still waiting for the specific details on slight damage.

Image courtesy and copyright Chinanews.com

Update 07:34 UTC : Without details about the locations, 56 killed and 412 injured people are confirmed by authorities. At least 14 more people are still missing.

Update 07:01 UTC : The numbers again increased. Currently confirmed is a toll of 53 deaths and 337 injuries.

Update 06:53 UTC : 48 deaths and 326 injuries are confirmed now.
45 people were killed and 270 injured in Minxian, 1 killed and 26 injured in Zhangxian, 1 killed in Longnan City and 1 killed and 20 injured in Dangchang County.

Update 05:45 UTC : 47 deaths and 296 injuries are still the current statistics from this earthquake.
There is also little information coming out in addition as counting and preliminary assessment of the damage continues.
Around 20,000 rooms have been severely damaged. Again, we hope that other news services will start correctly reporting the damage in "rooms" and not "houses". The China earthquake bureaus count in "rooms" (the space between 2 lateral supports) as it makes it easier to quantify the damage.

Update 05:04 UTC : Reports of 47 deaths are coming through from Chinese TV channels. Minxian Dingxi City - 45 deaths, Zhangxian - 1 person, Longnan City Lixian - 1 person.

Update 04:45 UTC : 6 aftershocks stronger than M3 have been recorded. 5 between 3.0 and 3.9, and one M5.6 aftershock.

Update 04:45 UTC : An attempt will be made to classify further the known casualties (22 deaths, 296 injured) and damage (10000 rooms collapsed/severely damaged and 100000 rooms damaged):-
Ma Po town Minxian - 岷县蒲麻镇 - 3 deaths
Meichuan town - 梅川镇 - 7 deaths, 45 injured
Lu Well? - 闾井 - 1 death
申都 - 2 deaths
Wo - 禾驮 - 1 death
Zhangxian Ishikawa - 中寨镇 - 3 deaths.
In the 13 townships, 1203 rooms have collapsed (380 households) and 21000 rooms are severely damaged (5600 households). It is thus expected that around 200000 rooms are slightly damaged.
Electricity and communications are still down in many areas.

Update 04:26 UTC : 22 people have unfortunately been killed.
Minxian Dingxi City - 19 people,
Zhangxian - 2 people,
Lixian Longnan - 1 person.
- 296 people have been injured.
- 10000 rooms have collapsed or been damaged, and 100000 rooms have been slightly damaged. (approximately the same as 30000 houses).
- around 100000 have been emergency relocated (not necessarily homeless, just relocated while the response teams do their work and will be provided accommodation, food etc., while houses are checked for cracks and stability)
- around 300000 people are affected.

Some damage in the Gansu province earthquake (gov.cn).

Update 03:51 UTC : The earthquake occurred as people were working in the fields and starting their work day, hence the fatality ratio will have been reduced slightly.

Update 03:45 UTC : Ma Po Minxian rural township has also had severe damage. As communications are down in the area, the death toll is expected to rise in the coming hours.

Update 03:42 UTC : Dingxi City Taihe Village has nearly been completely destroyed. Over 450 rescue staff are present along with around 100 CEA, province and city seismological bureau workers, as well as around 600 Militia. Again, Earthquake-report.com commends China on their system of Federal, Province, City and county seismological/earthquake bureaus. It speeds up response in such disasters.

Update 03:38 UTC : 19 deaths and 270 injured so far from the earthquake. Many were as a result of collapsed structural members of houses.

Update 03:15 UTC : 11 deaths and 81 injured so far.

Update 02:49 UTC : Given the rain, landslides are expected in the region as a result of the earthquake (this occurs as wet ground makes it easier for a surface (of depth 1-2m to slide down a hill). Communications and power have been interrupted in the region, so information is still sparse.

Update 02:47 UTC : Again we hope that the impact of this earthquake will be limited however given the population, damage in at least the order of the 100s of millions of CNY is expected.

Update 02:45 UTC : Aftershocks including one of Ml5.6, have brought down additional rooms.

Update 02:41 UTC : 300 militia have been sent to the region.

Update 02:39 UTC : Gansu and Ningxia province is of course famous for the world's deadliest earthquake of the 20th and 21st centuries, with 273400 people being killed in the 1920 Haiyuan earthquake.

Update 02:39 UTC : 3 people have been killed and dozens injured. There are reports of collapsed rooms from 13 townships.

Update 01:43 UTC : It is currently raining in the epicenter area which makes landslides more likely.

Update 01:40 UTC : Minxian, the closest city to the epicenter reports in Ma Po collapsed houses and at least injured people. The country and district responsibles are rushing to the earthquake area. Mobile telecommunications are interrupted in the epicenter area.

Update 01:26 UTC : Chinese media report that :
The earthquake occurred at 7:45 a.m. at the junction of the Minxian County and Zhangxian County, according to the China Earthquake Networks Center. The local people in the Minxian County said strong tremor was felt and they saw noticeable shake of trees and homes, adding that the quake lasted for about one minute. Meanwhile, the earthquake was also felt in neighboring cities of Dingxi, Longnan, Tianshui, as well as the provincial capital city of Lanzhou. Xi'an City, capital of the neighboring Shaanxi Province was also reported to have felt the quake.

Update 01:17 UTC : This is a small village only 1 km away from the epicenter (USGS epicenter). The image shows farming fields in the form of terraces and a village build upon a ridge. Extremely dangerous, not only for shaking damage but also for landslides.

Update 01:06 UTC : CEIC has recorded 4 aftershocks in between M3, and M3.9 since the mainshock.

Update : Min, Zhang and Wushan counties are populated by several hundred thousands of people.

Update : We are almost certain that damage will have been inflicted during this earthquake. We expect that reaching the direct epicenter area may take several hours as the landscape consists of rugged low level hills.

Update : The I Have Felt It reports we are getting are mostly coming from Xi'An, the city who has these phenomenal terracotta army warriors. Xi'An is about 350 km from the epicenter.

Update : the expected shaking at some Chinese cities based on the data from USGS (M5.9). Chinese have M6.6 but deeper than USGS which may after all have the same intensity.

Update : The Chinese seismological authority has reported a M6.6 at a depth of 20 km, an even grimmer perspective than the M5.9 from USGS on which the data below have been calculated. There is no reason not to believe the data from the Chinese as they are highly specialized in earthquakes.

Update : USGS expects a very strong MMI VII shaking for approx. 19,000 people, a strong shaking for 150,000 people and a moderate shaking for 379,000 people.

A very dangerous earthquake struck the Gansu province, China

13km (8mi) E of Chabu, China
151km (94mi) W of Beidao, China
154km (96mi) SE of Linxia, China
177km (110mi) SSE of Lanzhou, China
1233km (766mi) WSW of Beijing, China

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