Tangshan, six years later

Abstract

At 3:42 a.m on July 28, 1976, the now infamous Tangshan earthquake struck that heavily industrialized city in eastern China killing, by official count, 240,000 people. During the first 2 years after the earthquake, estimates of casualties ranged from 650,000 to 800,000. Almost certainly the exact number will never be known. The earthquake was measured at magntiude 7.8, and intensities that registered XI on teh Modified Mercalli Intensity Scale occurred throughout the city of Tangshan.