Throng

NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC - Sunday 21 February, 8.30pm

In May 2008 a magnitude 7.9 quake struck the heart of China's Sichuan province. The quake released a surge of seismic energy the equivalent of five and a half thousand atomic bombs devastating an area the size of South Korea. In ninety unforgiving seconds, 80,000 lives were lost, 5 million buildings destroyed and 5 million people left homeless. A year after China's monster quake, an international team of scientists trawl through rubble to find clues that will help solve the mystery of China's unexpected disaster. Was the Sichuan earthquake a freak of nature, or was this a tragedy waiting to happen? The experts reveal a catastrophic chain of events that made this seismic event the largest earthquake of its kind ever recorded.