A Concise History of Earthquakes in Vietnam (from tenth to nineteenth Centuries)

Abstract

Earthquake is one of the highly destructive natural disasters, causing significant loss of life and extensive damage to property. However, with current science and technology, there is still no way to reliably predict when an earthquake will happen. Thus, statistical analysis of records of past earthquakes is valuable for predicting future earthquakes. Based on historical texts such as Abridged Chronicles of Viet, Complete Annals of Dai Viet, The Imperially Ordered Annotated Text Completely Reflecting the History of Viet, and Annals of Dai Nam, this article overviews the chronicles of earthquakes in Vietnamese history (from the tenth to the nineteenth century). This article researches essential features of chronicles of earthquakes in historical texts, describes some large earthquakes, and compares these records with seismic data. In addition, the article also reviews the perceptions of medieval Vietnamese people, through the perspective of historians, about the origin, causes of earthquakes and how to prevent earthquakes.