A composite database of casualty-inducing earthquakes in mainland China

Detailed and accurate historical earthquake disaster data are an important basis for understanding the characteristics of earthquake disaster losses and for conducting research on earthquake disaster prevention strategies and post-earthquake emergency rescue work. Due to different project scopes and discrepancies in data accuracy, the currently available databases may contain errors such as missing data or data with low accuracies. In this study, we developed the Mainland China Composite Earthquake causing Casualties Database (MCCEC-DAT), which contains 252 historical earthquake records that span from 1966 to 2021. The database contains earthquake attribute information (earthquake time, location, epicenter latitude and longitude, focal depth, epicentral intensity, etc.), loss information (number of deaths and injuries, building damage ratio, economic loss, cause of death, etc.), and socioeconomic data (population, population density, area of each zone of seismic intensity, mortality rate, etc.). This database also contains the lethality levels generated by this study. These levels are the result of the quantitative evaluation of the overall characteristic levels of the earthquake area. Furthermore, this metric permits the direct comparison of different spatial locations. Based on the results of the statistical analysis, this work shows that the distribution of historical earthquakes in mainland China has obvious spatial and temporal characteristics. Events are mainly distributed throughout the southwest region, and the magnitudes of those events are relatively diverse. The mortality rate is significantly correlated with the building damage ratio and the lethality level. The lethality level can not only facilitate an improved understanding of the comprehensive level of historical earthquake regions, but this metric also provides a quantitative foundation for the comparative analysis of earthquakes between different regions. Furthermore, the database can also provide a foundation for future research, such as research into assessing the loss from earthquake disasters.