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20th Century’s Deadliest Disasters

Khalid Elhassan October 26, 2020 32 min

1976 Tangshan earthquake - Tangshan — A bridge destroyed by the Tangshan Earthquake. China Underground

31. The Twentieth Century’s Deadliest Earthquake

A bridge destroyed by the Tangshan Earthquake. China Underground

At 3:42 AM, July 28^th, 1976, a massive earthquake of between 7.8 to 8.2 on the Richter Scale hit Tangshan. It lasted for less than half a minute – 23 seconds, to be exact. During that short span of time, 90% of Tangshan’s buildings were leveled. Because almost everybody was asleep in their beds – in homes that were decidedly not earthquake-resistant – the death toll was horrific.

A victim of the Tangshan Earthquake. China Daily

Stunned survivors crawled out of their homes, many of them naked, covered only in blood and dust. The seismic upheaval started fires, set off explosives in Tangshan’s factories, spilled toxic chemicals, and released poisonous gasses. Water and electricity were cut off, while road and rail links were severed. Between the initial earthquake and subsequent aftershocks, an estimated 655,000 people were killed, and another 700,000 were seriously injured.

Written by

Khalid Elhassan

A lifelong history buff, I developed a particular passion for WW2 history as a child, when I spent hours listening to my grandfather, enraptured, as he recounted his wartime experiences in the British East African Campaign and with the British 8th Army in North Africa.

I graduated with a history BA from George Mason University, then went on to get a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. After lawyering for a decade, I moved to sunny Rio de Janeiro and a less demanding career, opening a tourism agency in Copacabana.

A big chunk of my free time is spent blogging (you can follow me on Quora https://www.quora.com/profile/Khalid-Elhassan ) or freelance writing, mostly about my favorite subject, history.