The April 14th, 2010 Yushu earthquake, a devastating earthquake with foreshocks

In the early morning of April 14th, 2010, a strong earthquake (Ms7.1, http://www.csndmc.ac.cn; Mw6.9, http://neic.usgs.gov) occurred in Yushu district, Qinghai Province, China. More than 2000 lives were lost and over 100000 injured, in addition to huge economic loss. The Chinese government launched effective rescue efforts immediately after the earthquake. More than 6000 lives have been saved after rescue teams took them out of the collapsed buildings. A village and a middle school reportedly suffered no life loss and injury thanks to timely evacuation after a well-felt M4.7 earthquake which had occurred two hours before the main shock.