Seven people have died after a landslide buried a two story building in Xiguan Village of Jixian County in Shanxi Province in northern China under several tons of rock and earth at about 2.20 am local time on Sunday 6 April 2014. Eight people were in the building at the time of the incident, but only one was pulled out alive by rescue teams, and is now being treated in hospital.
The approximate location of the 6 April 2014 Shanxi Province landslide. Google Maps.
The mountainous areas of northern China are particularly prone to landslides, due to heavy seasonal rains and a deep layer of loose soil (loess), which is constantly replenished by topsoil blown from arid regions of Central Asia, contributing to the fertility of the region, but also leaving it exposed to dangerous earth movements. The situation is made worse by frequent Earthquakes in the region fed by the northward movement of the Indian Plate, which causes folding and uplift in the Himalayas and Tibetan Plateaux.
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