Haiyuan Flows, Ningxia, China, December 1920 (100,000+ Deaths)

The 8.5-magnitude Haiyuan Earthquake was the world’s second deadliest earthquake of the 20th Century. It generated a series of 675 major loess landslides causing massive destruction to lives and property. The natural calamity which struck the rural district of Haiyuan on the evening of December 16, 1920 claimed over 100,000 lives, and severely damaged an area of approximately 20,000 square kilometers.

The worst affected areas included the the epicenter of the earthquake in the Haiyuan County in what is now the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, as well as the neighboring provinces of Gansu and Shaanxi. Haiyuan County alone lost more than 50% of its population in the disaster. One of the landslides buried an entire village in Xiji County as well.

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