The 2009 Yunnan earthquake occurred with a
moment magnitude
The moment magnitude scale (MMS; denoted explicitly with or Mw, and generally implied with use of a single M for magnitude) is a measure of an earthquake's magnitude ("size" or strength) based on its seismic moment. It was defined in a 1979 pape ...
of 5.7 in
Yao'an County
Yao'an County (; Chuxiong Yi script: , IPA: ) is under the administration of the Chuxiong Yi Autonomous Prefecture, in the west-central part of Yunnan province, China. A prominent Chinese philosopher Li Zhi used to a prefect of Yao'an county and ...
,
Yunnan
Yunnan , () is a landlocked province in the southwest of the People's Republic of China. The province spans approximately and has a population of 48.3 million (as of 2018). The capital of the province is Kunming. The province borders the C ...
province,
People's Republic of China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...
on 9 July.
At least one person died and over 300 were injured, with over 50 of these sustaining serious injuries.
Background and tectonics
At 11:19
UTC (19:19
local time
Local time is the time observed in a specific locality. There is no canonical definition. Originally it was mean solar time, but since the introduction of time zones it is generally the time as determined by the time zone in effect, with daylight s ...
), a
magnitude 5.7 earthquake with an epicentre at occurred.
The epicentre was in Guantun, from the province's capital
Kunming and east north east of
Dali. The depth of the event was .
Eight
aftershocks were recorded.
A
magnitude 5.0 aftershock occurred on July 10 at 09:02:04 UTC (17:02:04 local time). Its epicentre was located at .
In total, there were over 8 aftershocks.
Damage and casualties
The earthquake destroyed 10,000 houses and damaged a further 30,000. One person died
and over 300 people were injured, with over 50 suffering serious injuries.
[ Yunnan province's civil affairs department was dispatching 4,500 tents, and 3,000 quilts as part of the disaster relief efforts. Also, a coal mine collapsed in the epicentral area within 50 miles.]
See also
* List of earthquakes in 2009
*List of earthquakes in China
This is a List of earthquakes in China, part of the series of lists of disasters in China. China has been the location of some of the most deadly earthquakes in history. The deadliest was the 1976 Tangshan earthquake with 300,000+ deaths. Earth ...
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Yunnan earthquake, 2009
2009 Yunnan
2009 earthquakes
2009 disasters in China
Geography of Chuxiong Yi Autonomous Prefecture
Yao'an County