China News Service, Beijing, December 16th (Reporter Sun Zifa) December 16, 2020 is the 100th anniversary of the 8.5 magnitude earthquake in Haiyuan, Ningxia. The Public Service Department of China Earthquake Administration organized the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region Seismological Bureau to interpret science and technology. Earthquake work of scientific significance began with this earthquake and has continued to develop in the next hundred years.

The disaster situation of the Haiyuan earthquake in 1920.

Photo courtesy of the Public Service Department of China Earthquake Administration and Seismological Bureau of Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region

Promote the formal development of China's seismic science

  According to the Seismological Bureau of Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, on December 16, 1920, a magnitude 8.5 earthquake occurred in Haiyuan, which killed about 270,000 people. It was a rare devastating earthquake in human history. It was also China’s highest magnitude, largest epicenter, and the most disaster. One of the most severe earthquakes was sometimes called the "Global Earthquake".

  Four months after the Haiyuan earthquake, China’s Beiyang government appointed Weng Wenhao, Xie Jiarong, Wang Lie, Su Benru, Yi Shoukai, and Yang Jingwu from the three ministries and commissions of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Education, and Agriculture and Commerce to investigate the disaster area. They did not only investigate and understand the earthquake. In addition to disasters, landslides and cracks, special attention is paid to geological scientific investigations to study the relationship between the origin of earthquakes and crustal structure, and to discuss the phenomena of abnormal earthquake intensity and the characteristics of building structural damage.

  This earthquake scientific expedition created a precedent for China to use modern scientific methods to observe and study earthquakes and promoted the formal development of seismic work in China as a science.

  Under the influence of the Haiyuan earthquake disaster, the famous seismologist Li Shanbang and others built the Jiufeng Seismic Station in the western suburbs of Beijing in 1930. This was not only the first seismic station built by China, but also one of the world's first-class seismic stations. First, it opened a new era of earthquake science research in China.

Promote China's earthquake science undertakings into the fast lane

  After the founding of New China, the first national earthquake prediction operation was carried out in the Haiyuan earthquake zone, and China's macro earthquake prediction started from this.

In 1958, scientists from the Institute of Geophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences discovered for the first time the eastern section of the rupture zone of the 1920 Haiyuan Earthquake from Ganyanchi to Li Junbao, and for the first time discovered this huge crustal deformation phenomenon that the Ganyanchi lake migrated northward during the earthquake. The first general brochure "Talking about Earthquakes" was born, and many valuable earthquake precursor phenomena were obtained, laying the foundation for the later macroscopic earthquake prediction in China.

  In the early 1960s, geologist Kan Rongju and others discovered the western part of the Haiyuan earthquake rupture zone in Jingtai area, Gansu. They believed that the Haiyuan Great Fault's extreme earthquake zone started from Guyuan Xiaokou in the east, passed through Xiji and Haiyuan, and ended in Jingtai, Gansu in the west. County Xingquan Fort, with a total length of about 220 kilometers.

  The scientific research on the Haiyuan earthquake fault zone carried out in Gansu and Ningxia deepened the understanding of earthquake disaster sites as the “natural testing ground” for earthquake research and further consolidated China's earthquake science research.

In May 1979, the "1920 Haiyuan Earthquake Academic Symposium" was held in Yinchuan, and the "Haiyuan Earthquake in 1920" was published in September of the following year.

In addition, the "China Active Faults and Paleoseismic Symposium" exchanged and discussed the research results of the Haiyuan active fault zone and other active faults, and promoted the development of China's seismic science undertakings into the fast lane.

Casualties of the Haiyuan earthquake in 1920 and other disasters.

Photo courtesy of the Public Service Department of China Earthquake Administration and Seismological Bureau of Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region

  From 1981 to 1982, some special research work on the Haiyuan active fault zone was carried out.

From 1982 to 1985, Sino-US joint research on seismic science and technology was carried out in the Ningxia section of the Haiyuan active fault zone, and many valuable scientific papers were published successively, which attracted the attention of world geoscientists.

In October 1988, "Haiyuan Active Fault Zone 1:50000 Geological Mapping" was completed; in 1990, "Haiyuan Active Fault Zone" was published.

Earthquake research and exploration still needs the support of the whole society

  Over the past 100 years, the vicissitudes of the Haiyuan earthquake have left the mark of the hard work of seismic scientists in exploring seismic science, and important progress has been made in seismic scientific research.

  The practice and experience of previous scientific investigations of the Haiyuan Earthquake show that there is a huge practical need for earthquake prevention and disaster reduction.

Chinese earthquake scientists who have experienced many major earthquake disasters have gradually mastered the core technology of earthquake monitoring through long-term independent research and development and hard work, and have achieved fruitful results in earthquake disaster prevention and earthquake emergency rescue.

  The Seismological Bureau of Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region pointed out that due to the extremely complicated mechanism of earthquake initiation and evolution, especially strong earthquakes and huge earthquakes, the inaccessibility of underground sources also limits more direct observation.

Therefore, today, one hundred years after the Haiyuan earthquake, the game between humans and the catastrophe is still in progress. Earthquake scientific research and exploration still needs the support and tolerance of the whole society.

Speed ​​up the construction of China Earthquake Science Experimental Site

  At present, China's seismic department has strengthened seismic science research and actively promoted the construction of seismic science experiment grounds, and has achieved a series of innovative results: new progress has been made in key technologies such as earthquake prediction and risk analysis, and earthquake monitoring and early warning; artificial intelligence seismic monitoring technology is more traditional The alternative experiment of the method has been successfully applied to the early earthquake report; the independent development of new active source detection technology and a variety of new methods of abnormal information extraction provide key technical support for improving the seismic observation ability.

Through these work, earthquake science and technology workers further deepen their scientific understanding of earthquake disasters and effectively improve their ability to resist earthquake disaster risks.

  In the next step, China's seismic department will continue to strengthen seismic science research and enhance its independent innovation capabilities for earthquake prevention and disaster reduction. In particular, it will accelerate the construction of the China Earthquake Science Experimental Site, and strive to build it into a collection of field observations, numerical simulations, scientific verification, and the application of scientific and technological achievements One, a world-class seismic science experiment field with Chinese characteristics.

  Through scientific research, the China Earthquake Science Experiment Center will produce a batch of scientific models and application demonstrations related to earthquake incubation and earthquake risk assessment, further deepen the scientific understanding of the laws of earthquake incubation and occurrence and disaster mechanism, and promote better earthquake prevention and disaster reduction. Serve economic and social development.

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