THE 1920S DROUGHT RECORDED BY TREE RINGS AND ...

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424 ERYUAN LIANG ET AL.TABLE IVThe hydrological records about the 1920s drought derived from historical documentsItems Hydrological records SourceRiver runoff in1928 in GansuProvinceOther rivers innorthernChina andMongoliaInland lakesIt was estimated that the stream flowin 1928 in Gansu Province had adecrease of 64% compared withthe mean (2.99 × 10 10 m 3 )The low-flow period of the HeiheRiver in the late 1920s and early1930s (derived from tree rings)The Taohe and Jialingjiang riverswere exhausted in 1928. Boats cangenerally cross the Jinghe,Hanjiang and Baohe rivers, butthese rivers stopped flowing in thesummer of 1928The severe drought caused thedrying up of wells and springs in1928Low runoff in the Yongding river(1926–1932) and Hutuo river(1925–1932) in North China.Shallow water in the Weihe river ofShaanxi ProvinceRunoff decline in the Tongtian river,as indicated by tree-ring analysisin the source region of theYangtze RiverThe lowest stream flow of theKherlen river over the past 345years occurred from 1925 to 1929,as derived from tree-ring widthdata in northeastern MongoliaHuangqihai Lake in central InnerMongolia desiccated in 1929Daihai Lake only had a surface areaof 50 km 2 from 1927 to 1929,compared to an area of 169 km 2 inthe 1960sHongjiannao Lake in north Shaanxilost all the water in 1929, while ithad an average of 60 km 2 in the1960s and 1970sThe editing committee for “Theflood/drought Hazards in GansuProvince”, 1996Kang et al., 2002; Wang et al., 2004bSummary documents of disaster relief,1928Deng, 1937Summary documents of disaster relief,1928Takung Newspaper, October 24, 1928Qin et al., 2004Pederson et al., 2001Archives of hydrological department inChayouqian Banner, Inner Mongolia,1989, unpublished reportWang et al., 1990Tang et al., 2003
THE 1920S DROUGHT IN NORTHERN CHINA 425Figure 10. The average dryness/wetness indices from fifteen stations (see Figure 1) in central InnerMongolia, Shaanxi, Gansu and Qinghai Provinces (Chinese Academy of Meteorological Science,1981).the drought occurrence (Chinese Academy of Meteorological Science, 1981). Asdemonstrated in Figure 10, sustained and severe droughts in the last 500 years occurredin 1484–1486, 1528–1529, 1586–1587, 1638–1640, 1720–1722 and 1877–1878, and 1928–1929. Of these, the drought occurrence in the 1920s was the mostsevere in the past 200 years. It was reported that the 1920s drought may havebeen the most severe in the past 700 years in the middle Qilian Mountains (Zhangand Wu, 1997) where no dryness/wetness index was available. The early droughts,however, in 1484–1486 and 1638–1640, appear to have been more severe than the1920s drought based on fifteen stations in northern China.4.4. THE EFFECTS OF THE 1920S DROUGHT ON SOCIOECONOMIC CONDITIONSThe severe drought in the 1920s had a catastrophic effect on socioeconomic conditionsin northern China (Table V). After sustained drought and repeated cropfailures, severe famine ensued in 1928 and 1929 and the number of people affectedreached approximately 34 million (Deng, 1937). The toll of the famine is difficult toaccurately determine. It is generally accepted that at least four million people died(Xu, 1997). Edgar Snow, an American journalist, reported that the famine led to thedeaths of about five million people in northern China (Snow, 1981). Deng (1937)estimated at least ten million deaths due to starvation and associated diseases in1927–1929 in northern China. Owing to a dramatic decline in the birth and survival
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THE 1920S DROUGHT RECORDED BY TREE RINGS AND ...

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