March 22, 1966 Earthquake: Hebei Province, China

March 22, 1966, 16:19:27 (local time), Southeast of Ningjin, Hebei Province, 37.5 N, 115.1 E, depth 15 km, magnitude 7.2, intensity X.The meizoseismal region was an area of about 137 km2 with Dongwang Town, Nlngjin County as the center, extending to Yaotai in the north, Shijiazui in the

south, Dacaozhuang in the west and Jiajiakou in the east.

The ground fissured everywhere with profuse ejection of water and sand. Large crisscross fissures, 0.7 m wide and dozens of m to several km long, were seen in and out of villages. At many places the ground was rent dozens of cm vertically apart. Large fissure belts were distributed along both banks of the Fuyang River, accompanied by serious slumps of embankments. From Aixinzhuang to Fengjiatai, the river dikes were displaced more than 1 m, and the river bed narrowed. The surface of the Aixinzhuang Bridge slid southward 1.8 m apart from the piers. Great quantities of sandy water gushed from craters, of which the largest reached 1-2 m in diameter. The ejected silt piled up as much as 1.3 m in thickness, wells overflowed everywhere.

Houses in most parts of this area, where effects of the earthquake of March 8 had not been grave, were almost all leveled to the ground. In the whole Dongwang Town the 15,000 rooms (of fairly good quality and mostly wood-framed and brick-faced) were all devastated, including the 950

brick-faced adobe houses and the 480 adobe houses of the No.4 Production Brigade; the 12 masonry classrooms in a middle school; and the masonry rooms in the commune office. There only an arched door was left standing.

Fissures occurred in the ground in the western part of that Town the largest being about 30 m in length and 5 cm in width. The ground cracked 1.3 m wide at Shahekou with ejection of water and sand. Transverse cracks occurred on the road leading from Dongwang to Aixinzhuang, well water rose more than 4 m.

(above from reference #3939)

March 22, 1966, 08:19:33.8 UTC, 37.5 N, 115.1 E, depth 33 km, magnitude 6.75-7. See March 7, 1966 earthquake for more information. (reference #45)

March 22, 1966, 08.20 UTC, 37.6 N, 115.1 E, magnitude 6.0 mb, 7.3 MS. Little detailed information is available on the series of violent shocks which occurred in Hopeh province, north-eastern China, in March 1966... The

shock of 22 March was even more violent; its epicentre was near that of the previous shock, and it was felt over a wide area, including Pekin, 300 km away. The New China agency reported that numerous buildings and houses collapsed but that the number of casualties was less than on 8 March, when people had been caught in their sleep. The worst damage was done at Hsing-t'ai, Heng-shui and Shih-chia-chuang; numerous aftershocks were felt in the same region up to 29 March. (reference #1039)

March 22, 1966, 08:19:33.8 UTC, Hopeh, China, 37.5 N, 115.1 E, depth 33 km, magnitude 6.5 mb, 7.6 MS. (reference #1229)