One person has been confirmed dead after an earthquake hit
Shuangbai County, Yi Autonomous Prefecture, in southwest China's Yunnan
Province on Sunday, the local earthquake relief headquarters
reported Monday. Seventeen others were injured in the earthquake,
which was the worst of some 47 tremors that shook the province in
less than 24 hours.
The 5.0-magnitude earthquake hit Malong village at 3:30 Sunday
afternoon. The village is home to about 2,000 people and located
100 kilometers from Kunming, the provincial capital.
The epicenter was located at 24.4 degrees north latitude and
101.3 degrees east longitude, according to the Yunnan Provincial
Seismological Department.
A milder quake measuring 4.6 on the Richter scale hit Binchuan
County, in Bai Autonomous Prefecture near the tourism center of
Dali at around 9:00 AM the same day. The two earthquakes were
centered about 150 kilometers apart.
They were the strongest of a series of earthquakes that struck
19 different locations in Yunnan between 1:00 AM and 6:00 PM on
Sunday. The lighter quakes measured between 1.0 and 5.0 on the
Richter scale, and some areas were rattled as many as nine times.
The temblors have caused over US$33.8 million in direct economic
losses.
Hu Yonglong, deputy director of the Yunnan Provincial
Seismological Department, said that the temblors may be related to
the killer earthquake in Indonesia, indicating that neighboring
areas are also experiencing active geological movements.
More than 23,000 people have so far been confirmed dead from the
powerful undersea quake that struck off the coast of northern
Sumatra on Sunday morning and the tsunami that followed.
Scientists in other parts of the world are also saying that that
huge tectonic slip may be affecting other areas. Enzo Boschi, the
head of Italy's National Geophysics Institute, told Italian state
radio, "All the planet is vibrating." He and some other scientists
believe that the powerful shaking may even have disturbed the
Earth's rotation or jarred the planet slightly in its orbit.
Yunnan borders South and Southeast Asia and is frequently
plagued by earthquakes. On August 10 this year, a 5.6-magnitude
quake struck Ludian County, killing four, injuring hundreds and
leaving some 126,000 homeless.
(Xinhua News Agency, China.org.cn December 28, 2004)