Introduction

At 14:27:59 local time, on May 12, 2008, an MS 8.0 earthquake struck Wenchuan County in Sichuan Province of southwestern China [1, 2]. The Wenchuan earthquake was noted as being one of the most destructive earthquake events to occur in China since 1949, due to its widest recorded region of influence and greatest disaster- triggered losses. The Wenchuan earthquake also caused major casualties. Estimates from August 25, 2008 show that 69,226 people had been killed, along with 374,643 reported injured, and 17,923 lost. The earthquake caused a total direct economic loss of 845.1 billion yuan. During the earthquake event, numerous urban and rural buildings were devastated. The Ministry of Civil Affairs (June 25, 2008) states that approximately 23 million housing units were broken down duo to the earthquake (one house being equivalent to four housing units on average), with as many as 6,525,000 left completely destroyed. Also, a vast number of villages in the vicinity of the earthquake were razed to the ground. The Wenchuan earthquake affected all aspects of local society completely. The infrastructures of the area were severely damaged by the earthquake event, and systems providing transport, logistics and daily-life service were paralyzed over a large area. Since all of the facilities were out of operation for at least one week following the earthquake event, there were no landline communication connections available. A large number of hospitals and schools suffered severe damage, as did many historical sites and natural heritage. Moreover, many important industries and corporations were destroyed by the event resulting in severe impediment of industrial progress. The earthquake also effectively destroyed a lot of forested land and wildlife habitats to break down the eco-environment and degrade the area’s ecological functions. These enormous losses left seismologists and engineers many questions to consider. First of all, they needed a clear scientific understanding of the earthquake rupture, including the nature and size of the seismic waves and the ground accelerations they produced. Also, the secondary post-earthquake hazards which had been generated by the main earthquake event required examination, so that the seismic hazards could be better assessed and guarded against in the future. In this research study, the previous research study results which had been made available regarding this particular earthquake during recent years were summarized and reviewed in an attempt to obtain new insights into the disaster. Also, this study focused on the current related challenges to seismology and earthquake engineering following major earthquake events.