Earthquake!

[toushka]

Hi all,

I'm writing an article on Sichuan for a magazine and covering a few inter-related issues. One aspect I'm interested in writing about is individual's own experiences where they just headed down to Sichuan off their own back, turning up ready to help. I want to know about their specific experiences and how it has changed them. I have an extremely tight deadline and need info by next couple of days if possible.

Please contact me via email: leonimilano@gmail.com

Many thanks,

LM

[Prodigal Son]

I'm a little bit late, but..

I was on Qing Cheng Shan during the earthquake, 25km from Wenchuan. I was trapped on the mountain for a day and hiked down. The part of the mountain that I was on is completely destroyed. I wrote about my experience on my website, www.19thstep.com (the post is called Ace of Diamonds, scroll down).

I've been back to the mountain a few times since the earthquake and recently rescued my motorcycle which was trapped up there for a few days. Some youtube videos are posted up.

[imron]

Japan just experienced a magnitude 7 earthquake. It makes for an interesting comparison to the recent Chinese earthquake, and while I'm sure part of the reason for the staggering difference in casualties is due to the relative population densities, plus the slightly increased magnitude of the China quake, I think it also highlights the importance of having good infrastructure in earthquake-prone regions.

[Rincewind]

plus the slightly increased magnitude of the China quake,

It's not slightly.Each whole number increase in magnitude on the Richter Scale represents a tenfold increase in measured amplitude or in terms of energy, each whole number step in the magnitude scale equates to about 31 times more energy. The USGS is rating the Japanese quake today at 6.8 and they rated the Sichuan quake at 7.9 so there's a big difference in the power of these two quakes. Of course, 6.8 is still a big quake and can do allot of damage. Even lowish magnitude quakes can cause allot of damage if the occur in a certain place or at a certain time. Quakes of this size are actually quite common. There was also a 6.3 quake in Greece last Sunday. In the 6 to 6.9 magnitude range, there have been 84 quakes already this year and there were 177 such quakes last year. That's one every other day. However, most of them happen away from population centres and are little reported.