What impact does Tancheng’s Tanlu Fault Zone have on local people?

More than three hundred years ago, on July 28, 1668, an 8.5-magnitude earthquake occurred in Tancheng, Shandong Province, affecting more than half of China. It was a major earthquake event rarely seen in eastern my country for thousands of years.

The Tancheng Earthquake was an 8.5-magnitude earthquake that occurred in Tancheng County, Shandong Province on the evening of July 25, 1668 AD. The epicenter was located at 35.3 degrees north latitude and 118.6 degrees east longitude, with an epicenter intensity of 12 degrees. The earthquake affected more than a dozen provinces including Jiangsu, Hebei, Henan, and Anhui, as well as the Korean Peninsula. The death toll in Tancheng, Linyi, and Ju counties in the earthquake areas was about 50,000, and the damage area was 1,000 kilometers long. According to historical records, "there was a sound coming from the northwest, like thunder, and like the sound of chariots and horses." In an instant, "mountains collapsed and the ground cracked." The land is flat and there is not a single house for hundreds of miles around.” The Tancheng earthquake is a rare major earthquake in my country's history, and it is also the largest destructive earthquake in my country's history so far.

Introduction to the earthquake

●The earthquake occurred at about 8 pm on July 25, 1668 (Xu time on the 17th day of the sixth lunar month in the seventh year of Emperor Kangxi’s reign in the Qing Dynasty)

●The epicenter is located at the junction of Tancheng, Linyi (Hedong District) and Linshu counties in Shandong Province, China <34.8°N, 118.5°E>

●Magnitude 8.5

●Focus depth About 36 kilometers

●The epicenter intensity was - Linyi earthquake, Tancheng-Juxian earthquake, Tancheng Maipo earthquake.

Scope of impact

According to records, the earthquake affected more than 410 counties at that time, including Shandong, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Anhui, Jiangxi, Hubei, Henan, Hebei, Shanxi, Liaoning, The earthquake was felt simultaneously in Shaanxi, Fujian and North Korea. Tancheng, Yizhou (now Linyi), and Juzhou (now Juxian) in Shandong were the most severely damaged. More than 150 states and counties within an area of ??more than 500,000 square kilometers suffered varying degrees of damage, with an affected radius of more than 800 kilometers. The city walls, official and civilian houses, temples, etc. in the earthquake area were all destroyed for a while. Tancheng collapsed to the ground, and there were no houses left in Juzhou for hundreds of miles. It was accompanied by large-scale landslides, ground subsidence, water gushing and sand spraying, etc. During the earthquake, it was like a boat being overturned, like orange trees rising and falling, collapsing into chasms, swirling into abyss, wells covered with sand, trees on the side of the ground crumbling, and hundreds of valleys falling. The massacre killed more than 50,000 people. Dead bodies were everywhere, and many people could not be buried. Everywhere in the villages, a fishy stench spread everywhere. There were heavy rains and scorching sun, plague and dysentery followed, and the people were dispersed. More than 150 states and counties within an area of ??more than 500,000 square kilometers around the epicenter suffered varying degrees of damage. More than 50,000 people were killed in the earthquake, and the felt radius reached more than 800 kilometers. After the earthquake, there were 6 aftershocks of magnitude 6.5-7.1.

On July 25, 1668 (June 17, the seventh year of Emperor Kangxi’s reign in the Qing Dynasty), a huge earthquake occurred in the Yihe and Shuhe river basins in southern Shandong Province, China. This earthquake is the most widespread and costly earthquake in the densely populated areas of eastern China, with an estimated magnitude of 8.5. According to historical records, Ju County, Linyi County and Tancheng County suffered the heaviest earthquake disasters. The disaster in Juxian County was that "the houses of officials and people, temples, archways, and city walls all collapsed, and there was not a single house left in the surrounding area for more than a hundred miles." The disaster in Tancheng was that "the battlements of the city towers, official residences, private houses, villages and temples all collapsed to the ground." The disaster in Linyi was that "the city walls, palaces, palaces, temples, and public buildings were all destroyed for a while, leaving no human beings intact." According to this record, the intensity should be the highest degree XII. This earthquake is a typical large earthquake within a plate, and its recurrence period is very long. From the geological structure point of view, there is a deep and large fault zone passing through the southern Shandong area from south to north, named Tancheng and Lujiang faults.

The megaseismic area extends from Ju County in the north to Xinyi in the south, and is distributed in a north-northeast direction along the Yishu fault zone. The intensity in some areas of Tancheng County and Linshu County reached XII, and the intensity in other areas reached XI degrees. During the earthquake, it was like a boat capsized. Trees on the ground collapsed, hundreds of valleys fell, cities, public houses, official and civilian houses, temples, etc. were all destroyed for a while. Mountains collapsed into chasms, ground swirled into abyss, and sand poured into wells. Tancheng's gate towers, village temples and temples all collapsed to the ground, and springs gushed out from the ground. The cracks in the ground were either too wide to cross or too deep to be seen. Thousands of houses in the town of Lijiazhuang collapsed; There are no houses in the state, the water in the flat land is more than ten feet deep, and the water in the wells is several feet high. The mountains collapse and the ground is torn apart. Half of the city is full of cracks all over the countryside.

Dead bodies were everywhere in the area, and many people could not be buried. Heavy rains and scorching sun, plague and dysentery followed, and people were evacuated.

The water surged several feet.

IX degree area extends to Weifang and Yidu in the north, to Pi County and Shuyang in Jiangsu Province in the south, to Rizhao and Jiao County in the east, and to Yanzhou and Zouxian in the west. The houses of officials and civilians are not accounted for, and there are many casualties of humans and animals. , the ground cracked, landslides occurred, and water and sand surged out.

VIII degree area stretches from Jinan to Changyi and Jimo in the north, to Yancheng and Lianshui in Jiangsu Province in the south, and to Weishan, Jining, and Tai'an in the west, covering an area of ??90,000 square kilometers. The city walls and official buildings have collapsed. Countless people, mostly humans and animals, were crushed to death, and the ground cracked and landslides occurred.

VII degree area starts from Jiaodong Peninsula to Huimin and Dezhou in the north, from Huaibei and Bengbu in Anhui Province to Xuyi, Baoying, and Dafeng in Jiangsu Province in the south, and to Heze and Shangqiu in Henan Province in the west, covering an area of ??nearly 200,000 square kilometers. The battlements and huts were in ruins, the people were injured and dead, and the ground cracked and black water came out.

The VI degree area starts from the mouth of the Yellow River in the north, from Anqing and Xuancheng in Anhui Province to Shanghai in the south, and from Ji County and Qiu County in Hebei Province to Anyang and Zhengzhou in Henan Province in the west, covering an area of ??nearly 400,000 square kilometers. . It is generally recorded that houses often fell over or people jumped on them and injured people.

Documentary description

1. This is recorded in the county annals of dozens of counties in Shandong: For example, the Yishui County annals record that "thousands of houses were sold down", and the Zhangqiu County annals record that "Longshan landslide”.

2. The famous novelist Pu Songling gave a vivid description in the article "Earthquake" in Volume 2 of "Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio". The following is a quote from "Earthquake": On June 17, the seventh year of Kangxi's reign, there was a great earthquake. When I was staying at Jixia (Editor's note: Linzi today), Fang and his cousin Li Duzhi drank by candlelight. Suddenly I heard a sound like thunder, coming from the southeast and going northwest. Everyone was shocked and couldn't understand why. Some tables were shaken, wine glasses were overturned, and beams, rafters and columns were bent and broken. Looking at each other, they are eclipsed. After a long time, we will know that earthquakes and various diseases tend to occur. I saw pavilions and houses, falling down and rising up again, the sound of walls falling down and houses collapsing, and the sound of sons and daughters crying, making a noise like a boiling cauldron. The person is dizzy and unable to stand, and sits on the ground turning sideways. The river poured more than ten feet, and the city was filled with the crow of cocks and the barking of dogs. After an hour or so, we decided. Looking at the street, naked men and women gather together, talking to each other, forgetting that they are not naked. Later I heard that a well was tilted to the side and could not be drained, a certain house's tower changed direction from north to south, Qixia Mountain was split, and the Yishui River sank into a cave, covering an area of ??several acres. This is really a very strange change.

3. At that time, Feng Kecan, the magistrate of Tancheng (a native of Shaowu County in the Qing Dynasty and a Jinshi of Kangxi), actively supported the victims after the earthquake. The then county magistrate Feng Kecan wrote "Songs of the Disaster People" to describe in detail the people after the earthquake. Life: The old man in Tancheng Ye cried along the countryside, saying that he had been devastated by the earthquake. Suddenly he heard thunder in the air, and the earth was overturned in an instant. Or like a galloping horse walking down a dangerous slope, or like a huge wave shaking a light shaft, suddenly sand and springs appear all over the place, and in a moment they are all gone. The cracks are opening and sinking into deep pits, it is difficult to stop when leaning and shaking, the wind is rustling and ghosts and gods are calling, the ground is miserable and the sky is covered with black mist. There is a chaos of escape for life and death, shouting to each other and chasing each other. When you look up, you can't see the person in front of you, and when you turn sideways, you can't see the house you were in. Hiding and hoarding have been accumulated for a long time, and there are broken bones and broken bones everywhere. Ruined ruins are everywhere in the desolate villages, but only a few of the thousand villages can survive. The young girl sleeps alone in the evening, and the old woman surrenders herself to care for her orphaned grandson. Every night, ghost fires are made from phosphorus, and every family weeps for new souls under the moon. The corpses are piled up and putrid without a coffin. Weave reeds into the tomb flags. The banquets and tents are all in the wild, the clouds are dark and the rain is clear, and the heat is too hot. How many lonely people are weeping on the roadside, homeless and homeless. I look around at my young relatives, who is in Shazhu? His wife and children were buried in a deserted hill, weeping and steaming millet in the kitchen. It's even more bitter. The rain keeps falling, and the water in Qiutian is rising. This year, two grains of wheat will be paid as official tax, and next year, the flesh will be cut into my heart. Alas, I wonder why the natural disasters will destroy each other, and when will the long locks on my brows be opened. I thought that the disaster would be over, but I didn't know that the disease would come back after the disaster. I wish I had died on the same day at that time. Who would be sad if I died of illness now.

Earthquake consequences

●Geology

Landslides, ground fissures, subsidence and other ground deformation phenomena are distributed in most areas of Shandong Province and northern Anhui Province. It extends for 120 kilometers from north to south. The strong rupture zone roughly starts from Banquan, Junan County in the north, to Guiyi Maoci, Tancheng County, in the south, and is about 70 kilometers long. Due to the large-scale rise and fall of the land surface, large areas of flat land were submerged by overflowing groundwater. The beaches in Ganyu County, northern Jiangsu Province, rose up, and the Yellow Sea retreated 30 miles away. Moreover, houses in dozens of states and counties were destroyed.

●Personnel

The human and animal casualties were very heavy. According to historical records, more than 50,000 people died, of which more than 20,000 died in Ju County, more than 12,000 died in Linyi, and more than 12,000 died in Tancheng. More than 8,700 people died.

●Economy

This earthquake shocked both the government and the public. Kangxi ordered the Ministry of Household Affairs to quickly discuss and provide relief. Forty states, counties, and counties including Shandong Yizhou were exempted from annual rents of varying amounts, and the amount of silver was 227,300 yuan, and officials were sent to provide relief.

Related research

In 1956, the Earthquake Working Committee of the Chinese Academy of Sciences collected and compiled a large number of historical materials on this earthquake. In 1960, Mr. Li Shanbang determined that this earthquake was a Tancheng magnitude 8 earthquake. From the 1970s to the 1990s, Gao Weiming from the Analysis and Forecasting Center of the State Seismological Administration, Li Jialing, Lin Zhixiang, and Chao Hongtai from the Shandong Provincial Seismological Bureau, and Zheng Langsun from the Seismological Office of the Linyi Administrative Office conducted on-site inspections of this earthquake many times and determined its origin. fault; Ji Tongren, Xu Xueyan and others supplemented the collection of relevant historical materials. The epicenter of this earthquake, the Tancheng-Linyi area, is located in the main body of my country's famous "Tan-Lu Fault Zone". The earthquake was caused by the activity of the land fault zone.

Causes of earthquakes

During a certain time interval, the Doujialing-Mercudan Mountain horst suffered long-term erosion. Intermittent equilibrium compensation will inevitably occur, and the instantaneous rise will inevitably lead to the occurrence of earthquakes. This is the background for the formation of earthquakes in this area. The direct cause of major earthquakes is the hidden explosion of traps, because hidden explosions can form magma channels, allowing high-density magma to continuously invade upward, which can effectively equalize and compensate. The geological background of the maximal seismic area of ??the Tancheng earthquake has the conditions for the formation of trap gas accumulation, molten magma, concealed explosion and wedge movement of a crypto-explosive earthquake. Therefore, it is believed that the Tancheng earthquake was caused by trap crypto-explosion.

Earthquake Relics

The seismically active fault site in Maipo, Tancheng, Shandong Province, has been officially approved by the China Earthquake Administration as a national-level typical earthquake site. In the next step, Shandong Province will carry out protective development of the site.

The Tancheng Maipo seismically active fault site is located in the middle of the Tanlu Fault Zone, the largest fault zone in eastern China. The Tancheng 8.5 magnitude earthquake occurred on July 25, 1668. .