Imagine the day when a natural disaster kills nearly one million people – a real apocalypse. When you think about the damage caused by this disaster, the scale of destruction is almost unimaginable when you consider that it occurred at a time when the global population was only 5% of what it is today.
This was the 1556 Shaanxi earthquake, which occurred on January 23, 1556 in the Shaanxi and Shanxi provinces of China. The earthquake, rated at magnitude 8, is considered the deadliest in recorded history, killing an estimated 830,000 people.
The earthquake caused massive destruction, including the collapse of structures, homes, and entire cities at the time. In addition to the immediate loss of life, long-term effects included famine, disease, and social upheaval. Considering the scale of the disaster, it is still a sobering reminder of the power of nature and the fragility of human life. The devastating damage of the Shaanxi earthquake is even worse than the size of the population today, thus making it an event of unimaginable scale for its time.
By most accounts, this fateful date saw more human lives lost than any other day in history, with the majority of these deaths occurring in the Shaanxi province of northwestern China.
according to South China Morning Post, This most devastating earthquake in Chinese history, also known as the Jiajing Earthquake, occurred during the reign of the Jiajing Emperor of the Ming Dynasty. The massive earthquake, which occurred simultaneously in present-day Shaanxi, Shaanxi, Henan and Gansu provinces, could be felt as far as the southern coast. A plaque installed three years later describes how “fissures appeared in the ground, from which water gushed out… The city walls and houses disappeared into the ground, and the plains were suddenly transformed into hills.. .The Yellow and Wei rivers flooded.” , and the (permanently silted) water of the Yellow River was clear for several days”.
The worst result of the Jiajing earthquake was the reported death toll of over 830,000 people, which, if accurate, would make it the deadliest earthquake in history. This disaster further weakened the Ming dynasty, which was then already in a state of steady decline.
