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March 22 (Reuters) - China will soon mark one year since the May 12 earthquake that devastated parts of the country's southwest. Here are some facts about the quake and its aftermath.

* The 8.0-magnitude quake had its epicentre in Wenchuan County, Sichuan province. The quake was caused by tectonic faults rupturing and grinding hundreds of kilometres along the Longmen Mountains.

* Some 80,000 people died, with thousands still officially listed as missing. The worst devastation was in Wenchuan County, where nearly 24,000 died or are counted as missing -- about a fifth of its population -- and Beichuan County, where 20,000 of its 160,000 residents died or are missing. This was by far China's deadliest since a 1976 quake in the city of Tangshan, near Beijing, which killed up to 300,000 people.

* In the aftermath of the quake, Chinese citizens and groups poured aid into the area and that effort continues. The government has launched a reconstruction effort, which is proceeding quickly but faces funding strains.

* Beijing has said it will channel 1 trillion yuan ($150 billion) to the quake zone, including much from bank loans and local coffers. But Jiang Jufeng, governor of Sichuan province, this month said 1.7 trillion yuan was needed for reconstruction.

* The government has not released recent estimates of how many children died, a devastating loss in a society where many urban families have only one child and rural families often two. A Reuters survey of news reports put the toll of school dead at about 9,000, while Chinese and Japanese experts have estimated about 10,000 dead after over 40 school buildings collapsed and others suffered severe damage.

* Chinese experts have estimated 1.7 million square metres of school buildings collapsed in the quake, which left another 18.9 million square metres of school buildings in a dangerous state.

(Sources: Reuters; Chinese Ministry of Science and Technology, "Overall Analysis and Assessment of the Wenchuan Earthquake Disaster"; H.K. Miyamoto et. al. "Reconnaissance Report of the 2008 Sichuan Earthquake")

(Reporting by Chris Buckley, editing by Dean Yates)

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