Visiting Bailu and the Sichuan Earthquake of 2008
Field trip to the fault at Bailu School
On 12th May 2008, a Magnitude 8.0 earthquake struck the Sichuan province of China, causing severe shaking that lasted about 2 minutes. It toppled buildings and caused numerous devastating landslides throughout the mountainous area to the north-east of Chengdu. About 90,000 people are thought to have lost their lives and millions were left homeless. The earthquake was felt widely throughout China and many other countries in Asia.
Tectonically the earthquake related to the convergence of the Indian Plate with the Eurasian Plate. This has created the Himalayan mountains over the last 40 million years, and is squeezing the Tibetan Plateau eastwards as a series of crustal blocks separated by major faults.
Where one of these blocks confronts the very solid basement of the Sichuan Basin (centre right of map above), it is pushed up as a thrust fault system called the Longmenshan Thrust Belt, which is actually made up of several faults parallel to, or in-line with each other. This uplifted area is on the very eastern edge of the Tibetan Plateau and forms a striking linear mountain range near to Chengdu.
Below is a photo of a school in a little town called Bailu which was impacted by the earthquake. It is a couple of hours drive north-west of Chengdu city in a valley leading into the mountains.
Here is the school before the earthquake struck:
During the earthquake, a fault (the Jiangyou - Guanxian fault) ruptured right through the school, uplifting the north-western side by at least 2 metres.
The fault uplifted one of the school buildings, without collapsing it, but unfortunately ripped right through another building that crossed the fault (in background). One person died in this collapsed building. The third building - partially seen to the right of the photo, contained over 1000 students and teachers as the quake struck. Even though it was badly shaken all the students and staff managed to get away with their lives.
During the earthquake, many other schools in the region collapsed due to poor construction which gave rise to a public outcry in the aftermath. Some towns were so devastated that they could not be rebuilt and were abandoned in their entirety.
The Bailu School was seen as a happy exception, and has been left as a memorial to the Sichuan Earthquake of 2008.
I visited Bailu earlier this month whilst participating in a teacher training conference at Anren, near to Chengdu.
These bronze sculptures at the front of the school commemorate the students fleeing the building, and give a sense of the panic that everyone must have felt. I noticed that many visitors on arrival at the school fell silent in front of this display.
My purpose for visiting the school was to lead a field trip there with about 60 of the Middle and High School teachers from the teacher training conference.
How to turn a casual tour into a learning experience
The purpose was to help the participants to appreciate the value of ‘education outside the classroom’ and to become confident to design and lead their own school field trips.
So I asked them to fully explore and evaluate the site and the displays, and to design an inquiry based investigation that they could use to lead their own trip with a class group of teenagers.
I asked them to think about:
Risk management
Ways to keep the students focused on observation and inquiry
Some specific, challenging investigations that would require careful observations, discussion and thought. This is often the hardest thing to invent, but creates the most educational value
Artistic or interpretive activities that could be done eg poetry, drama or drawing etc
How to best communicate as a teacher in an outdoor environment, so that the whole group is able to listen and contribute to discussions. This has to be periodic, efficient and not long-winded, leaving lots of time for students to explore the area at their own pace.
How the school looks today. The fault trace is still clearly visible, even though it is a bit covered with vegetation.
We spent quite a long time looking for clues about whether the fault may have moved sideways as well as vertically. This proved to be an interesting and difficult exercise. We concluded that there was not much sideways movement (a few centimetres perhaps) and that the fault was a reverse fault that compressed the ground surface.
Additionally, there was an education centre with a number of static displays relating to the earthquake and an exhibition of artwork with many paintings that were done by the students.
Following our visit to the school we explored the nearby river bed where we found quite a few plant fossils
Earthquake Museum
Later, back in Anren town, I was able to visit the Earthquake Museum with some colleagues to learn much more about the earthquake. It was a sobering picture of what people went through both during and following the disaster, when many communities were cut off from outside help due to landslides and destroyed life-lines.
Teaching about Earthquakes
Back in the conference, our discussions about earthquakes included using the ShakeKit that I had brought along from New Zealand, courtesy of QuakeCoRE. The significance of good engineering in areas of seismic hazard had been made clear to us during the field trip, and the ShakeKit is a great hands-on activity to investigate good ways to make a structure withstand earthquake shaking. These kits are available to borrow for free for New Zealand schools.
Finally, as a reminder in case you are interested, I have created a course for teachers who want some great ideas for teaching about earthquakes, including clear explanations of earthquake processes, ideas for practical activities, abundant downloadable resources, and links to my top selection of videos and visuals. It is useful whether you have not taught this topic before or would like some fresh ideas for how to make the subject relevant and engaging for your students. You’ll also get ideas for using simple materials to teach about seismic activity in a way that’s clarifying and memorable. If you want to know more, click the button below:
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Julian