Dubbed “Chinese sorrow” the Yellow River is known to have flooded nearby cities more than a thousand times in the past 2,000 years. However, scientists say the event in Kaifeng was the most devastating.
An horrendous flood in 1642 killed around 300,000 people in the Chinese city of Kaifeng in 1642, says a study published in the journal Scientific Reports. According to a team of international scientists, the catastrophic event destroyed the city and entombed its inhabitants under metres of silt and clay. The horrifying scope of the flood is attributed to the fact that Kaifeng’s walls partially collapsed and water became trapped in the city.
Back then Kaifeng was one of the largest cities in the world and served as the capital for several Chinese dynasties. It has been flooded by the Yellow River around 40 times over the past thousand years, but the event in 1642 was powerful enough to wipe out almost all of the city’s inhabitants. However, unlike previous floods, this one was not caused by nature, but humans.
Kaifeng was under siege by enemy forces for months. When it became clear that the city could no longer hold out the governor ordered the army to destroy dikes along the Yellow River hoping that it would deal with the enemy forces. Instead it killed everyone and everything in its path.
The aim of the study is to see what factors contributed to the resilience of cities to natural disasters such as this one. Scientists say that due to climate change and environmental uncertainty these events could happen again.
Sourse: sputniknews.com
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