The Great Hansin earthquake occured in Kobe, Japan, on 17 January 1995. The earth shook for around 20 seconds and the tremors reached a level of 7.3 on the Japanese JMA magnitude scale. The earthquake claimed the lives of 6,434 people and reduced over 100,000 buildings to rubble. A five-kilometre stretch of the Hanshin motorway viaduct also collapsed.
