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Scientists have identified an unprecedented day of mass death in world history – January 23, 1556. According to surviving historical documents, more people died on this day than ever before, “MIR 24” reports with reference to IFL Science.
The epicenter of the disaster was the Chinese province of Shaanxi, located in the northwest of the country. The cause of the mass deaths was a powerful earthquake caused by the movement of the Weinan and Huashan geological faults. According to modern scientific estimates, the natural disaster took about 830 thousand lives.
Experts have calculated that about a third of the dead were victims of the earthquake itself - collapse of buildings, destruction of cave dwellings and landslides. The rest died from the consequences of the cataclysm - diseases and hunger.
The magnitude of the devastating earthquake is estimated by scientists at 8-8,3 points. The geographic epicenter was near the city of Huaxian.
It is noteworthy that at that time the population of the Earth was less than 500 million people. Experts emphasize that the tragedy in Shaanxi is not only an absolute record for the number of victims, but also the largest relative loss of population in one day in human history.