As of 12:00 on September 18, 2008, the 5-12 Wenchuan Earthquake *** caused 69,227 deaths, 374,643 injuries, and 17,923 missing, making it the most destructive earthquake since the founding of the People's Republic of China*** and the country, and the worst casualty after the Tangshan Earthquake.

The 5-12 Wenchuan earthquake, which occurred at 14:28:04 Beijing time (UTC+8) on May 12, 2008 (Monday), had a magnitude of 8.0Ms on the Richter scale, 8.3Mw on the moment magnitude scale (according to the U.S. Geological Survey, the moment magnitude was 7.9Mw), and a magnitude of 11 degrees. The intensity of the earthquake reached 11 degrees.

Seismic waves from the quake have been confirmed*** to have circled the Earth six times. The earthquake affected half of China and many countries and regions in Asia, from Liaoning in the north, Shanghai in the east, Hong Kong, Macau, Thailand and Vietnam in the south, and Pakistan in the west.

Expanded Information

Causes of the Wenchuan Earthquake:

The Indian Ocean plate is moving northward at a rate of about 15cm per year, which puts pressure on the Asian-European plate and results in the rapid uplift of the Tibetan Plateau. And due to the influence of gravity, the east side of the Tibetan Plateau along the Longmen Mountains in the gradual sinking, and facing the Sichuan Basin's stubborn block, resulting in the long-term accumulation of tectonic stress energy. Eventually the pressure was suddenly released in the Beichuan to Yingxiu area of the Longmen Mountains.

Caused a retrograde, right-rotating, compression fault earthquake. Sichuan mega-earthquake occurred in the crustal brittle toughness transition zone, the epicenter depth of 10 to 20 kilometers, and the surface of the earth near, the duration of a long time (about 2 minutes), so the devastation is huge, the impact is strong.

Baidu Encyclopedia - 5-12 Wenchuan Earthquake