I'm not going to link to any articles because this is constantly being updated, and I'm surprised that this hasn't been posted yet as I've been listening in on it over the radio for the past two hours. The death toll on this is rising and rising. Fifteen minutes ago it was about 300 dead, so... It's going up fast.

The quake measured at a magnitude of 7.8, and from what I've read, there were a few others that occured afterwards as well.

The quake was felt as far away as Hong Kong, Taiwan, and even Vietnam.


CNN is being pretty up to date with this, so check out their main page.
http://www.cnn.com/


What a horrible event. I can't fathom what it is like to be in an earthquake because we don't get them around here.

It's bad enough when quakes happen in low population areas, but an urban area of China?? That's just awful, and I really hope that the death toll does not climb much higher.

Wow, that is a terribly high number.

The epicentre of this quake was in the 6th most populated region in the world (greater population than all of England!), so naturally the death toll is going to be huge.

In the past two hours, the 3000 death toll jumped to 5000 and now to 8500. Fuck, that's horrible.

Apparently this death toll is just from one region which was greatly affected. The current estimate is not all the areas of China affected by the quake.

Not particularly high. The Tangshan earthquake in '76 was of the same magnitude, and the death toll was at least 240,000, though probably more.

It is horrible, a tragic loss of life.

Not particularly

Whenever more than a few thousand human beings lose their lives, I think any number is a significant one.

The quake was only a few hours ago. This could just be the tip of the iceberg.

Aye, of course it's significantly high, but it's not remarkably high.

You're right, of course. Plus if that figure's for just this province, I dread to think what the absolute death toll may be.

I'd consider it a remarkable number, in general.. But not when it is stood beside the total population of our species.

Nor stood against other quakes of the same magnitude and similar epicentre. (look up)

I saw 7.8 and thought bugger me that's high for a logarithmic scale. So googling "strongest recorded earthquake" i get Chile, May 22nd 1960: 9.5 on the richter scale.

I think if I lived there I'd be forced to make a house immersed in a small lake of it's own to ward off those scary p and s waves.

F**CK YOU UPRC

I make a topic about >100,000 people dying in Burma and no one posts in it over the course of like 2 days and you post some puny little earthquake story and BOOM 10 replies in a few hours

damn you

more people know of China than Burma.

I think it's just because people don't care about burma.

Anyway, did anyone already blame this on the Global Warming? And why are there so many natural disasters happening recently?

yeah, Chile had the strongest earthquake ever, the city where the epicentre was got really fried, and then like half of it was submerged by the tsunami that came a few moments later, because of the quake...
also I'm sorry to hear it, I hope the death toll doesn't go much higher than it already is.

and america won't offer any aid... not because they don't want to but because china is a bunch of reds. 

still, even if they did extend an offer of aid it would only be turned down.  isn't it hilarious how the world hates you if you help them or say fuck off?

Honestly, I'd have to say, fuck china, I don't give a shit what kind of earthquake they get, they deserve it.

The people however, do not.

Are you kidding me... Holy crap. This is awful. Absolutely tragic.

edit: angry black man:

U.S. President George W. Bush released a statement saying his country "stands ready to help in any way possible."