6.6 Earthquake Strikes Near Chengdu

We’ve been a long time without an earthquake of any considerable power in Chengdu, until today.

At 8:06am the earthquake struck, and violently shook the city for about 40 seconds before subsiding. After that time, aftershocks continued every minute or so for the proceeding 30 minutes.

Photos fell off my wall and as soon as I arose from bed to take count of what was happening I could already see my neighbors dashing out of their apartments into the street, many dressed in nightgowns and bathrobes.

Although news published on this earthquake is insignificant so far, there is a USGS report from the US Government which indicates some details about the earthquake. Although the information has changed (it was originally reported as magnitude 6.9), the earthquake was in Ya’an, 115km to the Southwest of Chengdu. More information here: USGS info on 2013 Sichuan earthquake.

Sichuan Earthquake 2013
Map showing the location of Yaan in relation to Chengdu

As soon as the earthquake occurred I posted a thread on the Chengdu Forum which quickly received dozens of replies, which you can see here: EARTHQUAKE!!!!

If anything else develops, this post will be updated with new information.

9:24 Update

The Chinese Seismological Bureau is reporting this as magnitude 7.0: Link and Chengdu Shuangliu International Airport is closed until further notice.

4/21 Update

The death toll has risen to 160 according to this Associated Press article.

8 thoughts on “6.6 Earthquake Strikes Near Chengdu”

    • This is quite a cynical comment. What do you expect, a blog post every time there’s a minor earthquake in Sichuan? The earthquake the other day wasn’t nearly as powerful as this 6.6 and the people of Sichuan are used to these happening by now.

      Reply

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