Features of earthquake disasters happened in Yingjiang County, Yunnan Province, China during 2008 and several implications regarding earthquake disaster prevention measures

During the year 2008, several medium-strong earthquakes happened in Yingjiang County, Yunnan province, including March 21st Ms 5.0 earthquake in the southern part, August 21st Ms 5.9 earthquake in the northern part. Based on field investigation and relative literature reading, this paper has analyzed features of earthquake disaster and some anti-earthquake measures were pointed out. It was also indicated that the epicenters of these earthquakes were located in magmatic rock region where there is no faulting structure. A great deal of village houses were destroyed by the earthquakes, for instance, Tongbiguan Township was slightly damaged caused by March 21st earthquake, some villages in Menglong Township was the most severely damaged in Ms 5.9 earthquake, Sudian Village which is within the micro-epicenter was slightly damaged and Jiangxinpo Village which situated within a alluvial plain turned out to be the seismic intensity anomaly zone. There were two reasons contributes to severe damages: one was the foundation with unstable geologic condition or low mechanic intensity, for instance, the landslide sediment foundation and liquefied sand-soil foundation; another was the poor seismic behavior of the building with loose structure and low quality construction material. Facing those huge losses, it′s important to emphasize on the foundation survey and planning in rural areas, meanwhile seismic behavior of village houses should be improved to strengthen the emergency reacting ability, and insurances should also be advocated.