November 5, 2010 -- The devastating 2008 Wenchuan earthquake marks a defining moment for China's earthquake science program. The focus of a special November issue of the prestigious Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America (BSSA), the M 7.9 earthquake has garnered intense interest among seismologists, allowing the Chinese science community to demonstrate its capability to a global audience.
The earthquake produced an enormous disaster, killing more than 80,000 people and leaving more than four million people homeless. Destruction was widespread, though recent new building codes in Wenchuan mitigated the damage.
The May 12, 2008 Wenchuan earthquake ruptured the Longmenshan margin of the eastern Tibetan Plateau, producing a 240-km-long surface rupture along the pre-existing Beichuan-Yingxiu fault and an additional 72-km-long surface rupture along the Guanxian-Jiangyou fault. The size and extent of the earthquake surprised many since the region was not considered a location with a high seismic hazard risk. Published in this special issue, research by Liu, et al., constrains the most recent comparable major earthquake at 1000 to 2000 years ago.
The special issue features 34 papers that primarily focus on strong-motion studies and surface-rupture studies. Other papers focus on aspects that relate to the earthquake, from structural geology to engineering aspects, including:
The Seismological Society of America (SSA) is an international scientific society devoted to the advancement of seismology and its applications in understanding and mitigating earthquake hazards and in imaging the structure of the Earth. Its journal, BSSA, is the premier journal of advanced research in earthquake seismology and related disciplines.
Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America