Ripple hazard of recent Jishan earthquake offers new explanation for destruction of prehistoric Lagia settlement 4000a BP

The distance between the villages of Jintian and Caotan in the JERH area and the settlement of Lajia (dated to 4000a BP) is 4.15 km. They are both located in the Guanting Basin in the upper reaches of the Yellow River, on the second and third terraces of the Yellow River (Figure 3). The two places have the same geological and geographical environment.

Figure 3

Location of the Jishan Earthquake Ripple Hazard Zone (JERH) and Lajia Settlement of 4000a BP, Minhe County, Qinghai Province, China. (Note: Map created using ArcMap 10.6, URL: https://www.arcgis.com/index.html, by co-authors.)

Controversy over the cause of the destruction of the Lagia settlement

The discovery of the prehistoric Lajia disaster site in the Guanting Basin of Qinghai Province in the upper reaches of the Yellow River, especially the tragic scene of the mother protecting her child with her body, is shocking8. It is widely agreed that the destruction of the Lagia settlement was caused by an earthquake. However, the origin of the layer of red clay that covered the human remains and killed the population has become the focus of debate, sparking intense academic debate9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17. Some scientists believe that this layer of mud is evidence of a catastrophic flood of the Yellow River9,10; Others believe that the mud layer came from the overflow of a blocked lake after an earthquake created a barrier lake at Jishishiya11. The third opinion is that this layer of clay was a clay deposit, and that the immediate cause of the disaster was a sudden heavy rain and mudflow after the earthquake13,17.

Following Wu et al.10, Dong et al. He argued that the prehistoric disaster at the Lajia site had nothing to do with the Yellow River flood. Wu et al15 believe that Wu et al10's arguments are unconvincing because the physical evidence linking the prehistoric disaster at the Lajia site to the Yellow River flood is unreliable. Han believes that Wu et al. 10's conclusions about the size of the barrier lake, the age of the lake, the peak flow at the point of dam failure, and the location of Lajia cannot be verified. The so-called Great Flood and its impact on the formation of early Chinese dynasties has not been confirmed. Huang et al. We believe that Wu and colleagues10's hypothesis of a massive flood associated with the Dayu legend is an alternative explanation that ignores many published studies. However, these conclusions and arguments are based on local evidence from environmental archaeology, and there is still no consensus on the process of disaster risk. The Jishishan earthquake provides an excellent opportunity for us to reconstruct the disaster process of Lajia on the basis of the existing JERH.

Interpretation of red clay deposits associated with the destruction of the Lagia settlement

Lower Lajia Village in Guanting City, where the prehistoric settlement of Lajia is located, is adjacent to Jintian and Caotan Villages in Zhongquan Township, and is located in the northern part of the Guanting Basin on the left bank of the main stream and the second terrace of the river. Yellow River. To the north of these two places is the third amphitheater of the Yellow River and the middle and low mountains and hills. The surface sediments in these two areas consist of agricultural soil, upper red soil, and lower sandy clay. Both places had developed canyons originating from the central and low-lying northern mountains and hills or the third terrace of the Yellow River. The canyons flow into the Yellow River from north to south and are all seasonal. The mixed sediments associated with the destruction of the Lajia settlement were well consistent with the deposition of the Jishan earthquake ripple hazard of sediments and mudflow in Jintian and Kaotan villages, which is a mixture of farmland soil, sandy silt and red soil (Appendices 4 and 6).

The scene of the archaeological excavation and the size of the Lagia settlement

The total area of ​​the three excavated sections of the Lagia settlement was approximately 0.47 km², containing 35 houses (including one pottery kiln). The remains of 25 human bodies who died in a sudden dangerous event were found at the site. Although the extent of damage caused by JERH at Jintian and Kautan villages was greater than that at the Lajia site, the difference in loss is believed to be related to the size of the settlements and population, and the scale of the two disasters can be determined to be similar. Compared to today's Jintian and Kautan villages, the Lajia settlement, which existed over 4,000 years ago, was quite “developed” at the time, but still smaller.

Explanation of the death scene in the excavations of the Lagia site

The scene of a mother protecting her child with her body, which was discovered on display at the Lagia settlement excavation site, was very similar to the scene of three adults protecting two children found at the JERH search and rescue site. This demonstrates the suddenness of the disaster and similar situations that cause damage to human life, and indicates that the position of instinctively grabbing and protecting children when a mudflow flows into the room was more common than in the case of an earthquake and a house collapse.

Through the “inferring the past from the present” approach and based on the review and analysis of the JERH and the Lajia settlement disaster, we see that the process of destruction of the Lajia settlement 4000a BP was similar to the process of destruction of today's JERH in Jintian and Kaotan villages. It was a collection of events involving earthquake-induced ruptures, upwelling of confined water, soil liquefaction, collapse, landslides, and mudflow. It is likely that an earthquake that occurred near the Lagia settlement at that time, with a strength and intensity similar to today's Jishan earthquake, caused similar geological and geomorphological activities and ultimately led to the destruction of the Lagia settlement. Due to the limitations of field observation and the large scale of undulation risk associated with the Jishishan earthquake, it is difficult to show the entire area affected by the disaster in one image, so we use three images from the site as supplementary material (Appendix 7).

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