Deadliest natural disaster in recorded history
The shaking from the magnitude 8 earthquake caused huge numbers of these Yaodongs to collapse, trapping the residents inside. Landslides raced down steep loss-covered slopes, and the long shaking caused the yaodongs even in flat areas to collapse.
the earthquake only lasted seconds, but it leveled the mountains, destroyed path of rivers, caused massive flooding & activated fires that burned for days.
The earthquake that caused this disaster on the morning of January 23, 1556, leveled a 520-mile-wide area and caused significant damage across 97 counties in the provinces of shaanxi, shanxi, Henan,
Hebei, hubei, shandong, Gansu, Jiangsu, and Anhui. 67% of the population was killed in some counties.
www.history.com | www.britannica.com | www.climate-policy-watcher.org