Moments Before the 1976 Tangshan Earthquake: VIEW FROM THE NATURE

Written By Buddy! Magazine
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Jackie Yuan (ISB G11)

In Jackie's new article, she explores the ominous signs from mother nature that may have foreshadowed one of China’s biggest natural disasters.

(All photos originated from China Daily)

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Buildings collapsing, children screaming, the electricity of a whole city going out, the ground cracking into a million pieces; this is a scenario that not only exists in Hollywood movies but also in real life. The Tangshan earthquake of July 28th, 1976, was a natural disaster that shook the world; 85% of the city’s buildings were destroyed, an estimated 500,000 lives were taken, and 700,000 more were injured. The magnitude of the earthquake reached a jaw-dropping 7.8 and caused prominent surface faults to ripple through the once lively and beautiful city. Before the disaster struck, nobody suspected it to happen as the Tangshan fault was previously unknown. Nonetheless, new evidence reveals that perhaps there have been several ominous signs... from the cause of the earthquake ------ mother nature herself.

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To begin with, there had been uncanny behaviors observed amongst multiple species of animals that inhabited areas nearby Tangshan prior to the earthquake. For instance, the number of fishes being caught in water areas near Tangshan abruptly and drastically increased. A married couple, Wu BaoGang and Zhou E recalls how a few days before the strike, there a sudden influx of fishes in the freshwater market and how the fisherman remarked on the sudden easiness of catching fishes. Moreover, a fisherman who worked near waters in Tangshan recalled how on July 27th, a day before tragedy struck, there was a sudden increase in the number of jellyfishes and small fishes near the fishing boat, and hundreds could be easily caught in just mere moments; the fishes seemed to be desperate to bite the hooks. Tamed fishes in regulated fish ponds behaved just the same –––––pond keeper Huo Shan Hua recalls how all the fishes started to repetitively jump up and down without stopping just three days before the earthquake. Some fishes jumped almost 40 meters above the water, while some fishes jumped with their head down. Apart from uncanny behaviors in the waters, the animals on land were also acting up. Specifically, large groups of dragonflies, butterflies, cicadas, small birds, and bats suddenly swept over the city of Tangshan just three days before the earthquake struck. The fishermen at a bay near Tangshan remarked how the dragonflies would not even budge even when shooed or seized. These events all occurred mere days before the earthquake struck, and despite how they are isolated events, the closeness of the dates of their happening and the date of the earthquake suggests a possible connection between the two.

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Apart from abnormal behaviors from animals, unsettling occurrences from non-life forms on earth also suggests how mother nature perhaps had been warning Tangshan of the disaster. For example, villages near Tangshan reported events of strong gas spouting out of water wells; the sounds of the gas spouting could be heard from 20 meters away, and the spouting gases were even strong enough to levitate small pebbles. Furthermore, there were also incidents of well water abruptly rising and falling three times mere days before the earthquake for no apparent reason. Some wells even cracked. Similar phenomena were also occurring on a bigger scale. On the East-southern coastline of Tangshan, a reef that always stayed above water suddenly disappeared from sight starting in the latter half of July. Small cottages on the beaches were also suddenly flooded with water. As a whole, the coastline shrunk, and seawater spilled further into the beaches. These eerie events puzzled people back then, but nobody was able to link it to an earthquake until it actually happened.

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To this day, the losses in Tangshan on July 28th, 1976, are still mourned and missed dearly. To this day, the issue of whether these signs of nature actually having a role in predicting earthquakes is still a hotly debated topic. To this day, despite the advances in seismology, such as early warning systems that could now warn humans of impending earthquakes that have given humans a better chance against earthquakes, there are always lives that are inevitably lost in earthquakes. May humans one day succeed in cracking the code of earthquakes, and innocent souls could be saved from perishing in such a gruesome event.

Buddy! Magazine
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