A BBC article, China Anger over ‘shoddy schools,’ focused on the fact in some areas schools collapsed during the 7.9 Magnitude earthquake last week, while other buildings near the schools withstood the earthquake’s devastating energy.

Beichuan Middle School, in the city of Mianyang, more than a 1000 students are missing. A day before the earthquake, one of the teachers took and posted pictures of the school and students. I found these on a blog at china.org.cn. If you link to this site you will see all of the photos on one page.

Picture of Beichuan Middle School, Mianyang, China, May 11, 2008

Picture of Beichuan Middle School after the May 12 earthquake

There were many schools in the Sichuan Province that experienced the same fate as Beichuan Middle School. Our hearts go out to the families that have students that were in these devastated schools.

There is little or no warning that seismologists can provide to help people just prior to an earthquake. The real protection is in the enforcement of earthquake building codes. After the devastating 1976 earthquake in the same region, the Chinese government established earthquake building codes. Aside from constructing buildings that are engineered for earthquake caused earth movements, the most important assurance that people will be protected is the government’s enforcement of the laws. Some people are arguing that development in China is happening at a pace that leads to faulty enforcement of building codes. School buildings may not have been inspected as they should have been.

As the world’s population has grown, more and more people find themselves living in areas that are likely to experience earthquakes. For example, take a look at the map below. This map shows earthquakes greater than magnitude 4 that occurred for the seven day period beginning on May 12, the day of the Sichuan earthquake. For the most part these earthquakes outline the edges of tectonic plates. The second map shows the direction of movement within the plates. For the Sichuan quake, the movement is along a fault zone in a mountainous area. Here the Indian plate, which is moving NE into the Asia plate is underlying cause of the Sichuan earthquake.

Map of magnitude 4 or greater earthquakes for the days after the May 12th Sichuan earthquake. The large yellow box shown in China is the 7.9 M earthquake of May 12.

Map of the Earth’s plate movements. Notice the N.E. direction of the arrows in China in the area of the Sichuan earthquake of May 12.