The sad, sad Sound of silence

The Great Sichuan earthquake

Date: May 12, 2008
Magnitude: 8.0 Ms / 7.9 Mw
Depth: 19 kilometres (12 mi)
Epicentre location: 31.021°, 103.367° (Wenchuan County in Sichuan
province). The epicentre lies on a fault where southern Asia
pushes against the Eurasian landmass, smashing the Sichuan plain
into mountains leading to the Tibetan highlands.
Aftershocks so far 96 strong aftershocks, over 7,000 weak aftershocks
Casualties:
67,183 dead (19th deadliest earthquake ever)
361,822 injured
20,790 missing
4.8 million homeless
(as of May 27, 2008)

It was the deadliest and strongest earthquake to hit China since the 1976 Tangshan earthquake, which killed at least 240,000 people.