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The May 2008 Sichuan, China earthquake: a herald of things to come.
Author(s) -
Jackson James
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
geology today
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.188
H-Index - 17
eISSN - 1365-2451
pISSN - 0266-6979
DOI - 10.1111/j.1365-2451.2008.00684.x
Subject(s) - megacity , china , context (archaeology) , vulnerability (computing) , geology , seismology , population , geography , archaeology , paleontology , computer security , economy , demography , sociology , computer science , economics
The terrible disaster of the May 2008 Sichuan earthquake, which killed 70 000 people, is an example of a catastrophe that is likely to become more common in the future, particularly in Asia. Much of the population of Asia is now concentrated in poorly constructed cities that have grown very rapidly in places whose locations are closely related to their geological context, and specifically to the proximity of active earthquake‐generating faults. With the extreme vulnerability of many Asian megacities, a catastrophe even larger in scale now seems inevitable.