Abstract
A devastated MS8 .0 earthquake st ruke Wenchuan county , Sichuan province on May 12 , 2008 , and razed many counties in w estern Sichuan pronvince. Based on the on-site work in Pengzhoucity , especially in the Longmenshan community which was heavily damaged , typical phonomena o f dest roied buildings and secondery disaster , such as landslide , we re described .What caused such a severe destruction ? Our analysis shows that the huge pow er of the earthquake , the grave secondery geological disaster , and the low seismic resistence ability of the buildings are main factors responsible for so severe fatality.To av oid such kind of tragedy in the future , we need to think abo ut the influence of fault and possible geological disaster in city planning and streng then the guidance on house building in rural area.