1927 Gulang earthquake

1927 severe earthquake centered near Gulang, Gansu Province, China 1927 Gulang earthquake 1927-05-22 22:32:49 iscgem909273 909273 May 23, 1927 06:32 Tibetan Plateau 7.7 MwM 7.7 - 31 km SSW of Wuwei, China 1927 iscgem909273 Haiyuan Fault 37.39 102.31 inline,title Gansu, Republic of ChinaXining 11 40,912 thumb|250px|Tectonic setting of the Tibetan Plateau showing main fault zones The 1927 Gulang earthquake occurred at 06:32 a.m. on 23 May (22:32 UTC on 22 May). This 7.7 magnitude event had an epicenter near Gulang, Gansu in the Republic of China. There were 40,912 deaths.NOAA page on the earthquake http://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/nndc/struts/results?eq_0=3315&t=101650&s=13&d=22,26,13,12&nd=display dead https://web.archive.org/web/20170814054843/http://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/nndc/struts/results?eq_0=3315&t=101650&s=13&d=22,26,13,12&nd=display 14 August 2017 12 June 2010 It was felt up to 700 km (435 mi) away.https://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/world/events/1927_05_22.php Historic Earthquakes Tsinghai, China 1927 May 21 22:32 UTC United States Geological Survey 12 June 2010 https://web.archive.org/web/20100621120721/http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/world/events/1927_05_22.php 21 June 2010 live Geology The continental collision between the Indian plate and the Eurasian plate has formed the Himalayas and the large uplifted area of the Tibetan Plateau. The northeastern part of Tibet is affected by the eastward lateral spreading of the Tibetan Plateau. This spreading is accommodated by a series of sinistral (left-lateral) strike-slip faults, including the Altyn Tagh, Haiyuan, Kunlun and Xianshuihe faults, combined with thrusting on the Longmenshan fault. The earthquake ruptured the complex thrust fault system in the Qilian Mountains transpressional zone, formed at a restraining bend on the Haiyuan fault.Gaudemer Y. Tapponnier P. Meyer B. Peltzer G. Shunmin G. Zhital C. Huagung D. Cifuentes I. amp 2007 Partitioning of crustal slip between linked, active faults in the eastern Qilian Shan, and evidence for a major seismic gap, the 'Tianzhu gap', on the western Haiyuan Fault, Gansu (China) Geophysical Journal International 120 3 599–645 10.1111/j.1365-246X.1995.tb01842.x 1995GeoJI.120..599G free Another segment of the Haiyuan fault was responsible for the 1920 Haiyuan earthquake.Cavalié O. Lasserre C. Doin M.-P. Peltzer G. Sun J. Xu X. Shen Z.-K. amp 2008 Measurement of interseismic strain across the Haiyuan fault (Gansu, China), by InSAR Earth and Planetary Science Letters 275 246–257 10.1016/j.epsl.2008.07.057 http://www-lgit.obs.ujf-grenoble.fr/users/lasserrc/papiers/cavalieEPSL2008.pdf 12 June 2010 2008E&PSL.275..246C 3–4 https://web.archive.org/web/20110721022925/http://www-lgit.obs.ujf-grenoble.fr/users/lasserrc/papiers/cavalieEPSL2008.pdf 2011-07-21 dead Damage thumb|Monseigneur Theodor Buddenbrock conducts missionary work in China 1927 In the area of greatest intensity, all cave dwellings and 90% of houses were destroyed. In Gulang, almost the only thing left standing was a 20 m (66 ft) long section of the city walls and some decorated archways. In Gulang county 4,000 people and 30,000 domestic animals were killed. In Wuwei, most of the city walls collapsed as did many temples, towers and civilian houses, 35,000 people and 200,000 horses and oxen were killed. In the area around Yongchang many primary schools, forts, stockaded villages and temples were destroyed, killing 809 people. In Shandan County more than 5,800 houses were destroyed and many cave dwellings collapsed, leaving 886 people dead. The ground was extensively fissured, with fissures up to 14 km (8.7 mi) in length, 6–13 m (20–43 ft) wide and 7 m (23 ft) deep. A large landslide at Dongchuan buried several villages and blocked the road for a year. thumb|Scenes of devastation following the 1927 Gulang earthquake Characteristics The magnitude of this earthquake has been variously calculated as 7.7 on the moment magnitude scale and 8.0–8.3 on the surface-wave magnitude scale. The earthquake was the result of thrust and strike-slip faults rupturing simultaneously. Three zones of surface ruptures were associated with the earthquake. Left-lateral displacements of 2.4–7.5 m occurred along a 120 km segment of the Lenglongling Fault. A 23 km longXu X. Yeats R.S. Yu G. amp 2010 Five Short Historical Earthquake Surface Ruptures near the Silk Road, Gansu Province, China Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America 100 2 541–561 10.1785/0120080282 http://www.bssaonline.org/cgi/content/abstract/100/2/541 https://web.archive.org/web/20100919032557/http://bssaonline.org/cgi/content/abstract/100/2/541 dead September 19, 2010 17 June 2010 2010BuSSA.100..541X subscription rupture occurred at the eastern end of the Huangcheng–Shuangta Fault with offsets of 0.1–2.8 m. Rupture on the Huangcheng–Shuangta Fault comprised reverse slip. The Southern Wuwei Basin Fault produced 42 km of vertical offsets in the range of 0.6–2.8 m.Guo Peng Han Zhujun Gao Fan Zhu Chuanhua Gai Hailong A New Tectonic Model for the 1927 M8.0 Gulang Earthquake on the NE Tibetan Plateau Tectonics 2020 39 9 10.1029/2020TC006064 2020Tecto..3906064G See also List of earthquakes in 1927 List of earthquakes in China References External links 909273 Category:Earthquakes in Gansu Gulang Earthquake, 1927 Gulang Earthquake, 1927 Category:May 1927 in Asia