The Haicheng Earthquake of February 4, 1975

On February 4, 1975, Haicheng, a town with about 100,000 inhabitants in the Liaoning Province of northeast China, was struck by a 7.3 magnitude earthquake. As early as 1970, the State Seismological Bureau, had identified the Liaoning Province as an area of high earthquake risk. Six months before the earthquake, there had been a series of smaller quakes in the region - which intensified on February 3rd.





Based on studies of such precursor events and on unusual behavior exhibited by animals, a warning was issued by local authorities on February 3rd and in the early morning of February 4th.Thus, when the earthquake struck at 7:36 p.m. that evening of February 4, there were few lives lost as most inhabitants had evacuated to safer places. The death toll was relatively smaller than what could have been without the warning. Only 1,328 people lost their lives. However property damage was high.



Resource : http://www.drgeorgepc.com/EarthquakesChina.html