Shaanxi (China) January 23 : The Deadliest earthquake

Earthquakes are usually measured with the so-called Richter scale. You can be the force of earthquakes and describe on a scale from 0.1 to 10 This means that with a force 7 earthquake is ten times stronger than an earthquake of 6 to 100 times stronger than an earthquake of intensity 5. The most powerful earthquakes ever recorded earthquake was only 9.5 in Richter scale that was in May 22 1960 Chili, called Valdivia Earthqua, but the deadliest earthquake was in January 23 1556 in Shaanxi (China).

The 1556 Shaanxi earthquake or Jiajing earthquake in China, where about 830 000 people were killed, was the deadliest and worst earthquake in human history. It occurred on the morning of January 23 1556 in Shaanxi, China. More than 97 counties in the provinces of Shaanxi, Shanxi, Henan, Gansu, Hebei, Shandong, Hubei, Hunan, Jiangsu and Anhui were affected. The earth sound was like the rumbling of thunders. The plateau and the plain all had cracks. The directions of the roads were even changed. Trees fell upside down and the mountains were rocked in the bottom part.

The hills and valleys had a lot of changes. Those rising became hills and those lowered down, became deep valleys. Within an area of 1000 kilometers, not many people survived. Fires were on for several days and the people lived in the open air. Many robberies and lootings happened. Numerous people died of the earthquake, the fire, the flood and robberies.