The Sichuan Earthquake
On our way back to Cheng Du from a four day trip we passed what looked like a ruined building. Our bus stopped and we thought “oh no not another shopping place!” It never occurred to us that we were going to the ruins. It had been a school that was hit by a terrible earthquake in 2008! It had been left as a memorial to the 88,000 people who died in a 8.0 magnitude seismic event. The school buildings looked like they had been dropped from a great height and had smashed into thousands of pieces. The floors were squashed together like a sandwich. In the car park there was a huge boulder which had been one of the many thrown down from the mountains! When walking round the ruins it occurred to me how scary it must have been, children were in class doing their lessons and suddenly the world shook around them, even four years on they are still fixing and building.
Some Earthquake Facts
1. An earthquake is a powerful movement of rocks in the earths crust. It is measured using the Richter scale.
2. The biggest recorded earthquake in Wales was 13 years ago and it’s magnitude was 4.5.
3. The earthquake in Yingxiu had a magnitude of 8.0 and left 10 million homeless.
4. The biggest recorded earthquake had its focus off the coast of Chile in 1960. It measured 9.5. An earthquake in Chile in 2010 measured 8.8. We will be in Chile next year! (sorry Nanna & Grannie)
5. Earthquake drill is “drop, cover, hold” : drop to the floor, find cover, hold on.
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