BEIJING – A series of strong earthquakes struck a far western Tibetan area of China on Wednesday, killing at least 400 people and injuring more than 10,000 as houses made of mud and wood collapsed, trapping many more, officials said.

The largest quake was recorded by the U.S. Geological Survey as magnitude 6.9. In the aftermath, panicked people, many bleeding from their wounds, flooded the streets of a Qinghai province township where most of the homes had been flattened.

Paramilitary police used shovels to dig through the rubble in the town, footage on state television showed. Officials said excavators were not available and with most of the roads leading to the nearest airport damaged, equipment and rescuers would have a hard time reaching the area.

Downed phone lines, strong winds and frequent aftershocks also hindered rescue efforts, said Wu Yong, a local military chief.

Workers were racing to release water from a reservoir in the disaster area where a crack had formed after the quake to prevent a flood, according to the China Earthquake Administration.

The Wednesday morning quake was centered on Yushu county, in the southern part of Qinghai, near Tibet, with a population of about 100,000, mostly herders and farmers.

The USGS recorded six temblors in less than three hours, all but one registered 5.0 or higher. The China Earthquake Networks Center measured the largest quake's magnitude at 7.1.

The main quake sent residents fleeing as it toppled houses made of mud and wood, said Karsum Nyima, the Yushu county television station's deputy head of news, speaking by phone with broadcaster CCTV.

"In a flash, the houses went down. It was a terrible earthquake," he said. "In a small park, there is a Buddhist pagoda and the top of the pagoda fell off. , Everybody is out on the streets, standing in front of their houses, trying to find their family members."

The death toll rose to about 400 by afternoon, according to CCTV. Emergency official Pubucairen, who goes by only one name, was quoted as saying that the number of injured has risen to more than 10,000.

The earthquake comes a little less than two years after a magnitude-7.9 quake in neighboring Sichuan province left almost 90,000 people dead or missing.

That quake flattened several schools, killing thousands of students. Poor design, shoddy construction and the lax enforcement of building codes were found to be rampant.

In Jiegu, a township 20 miles (30 kilometers) from the epicenter that appeared to be one of the worst hit, the local fire brigade was trying to rescue 20 students stuck inside a school, Kang Zifu, head of the rescue team, told state television. They were also working to pull out 40 to 50 people trapped in a toppled four-story building, according to CCTV. It did not say what type of school it was.

More than 85 percent of houses had collapsed in Jiegu, while large cracks have appeared on buildings still standing, the official Xinhua News Agency cited Zhuohuaxia, a local publicity official, as saying.

"The streets in Jiegu are thronged with panic and full of injured people, with many of them bleeding from their injuries," said Zhuohuaxia, who goes by one name.

The provincial emergency office told Xinhua that 700 soldiers were trying to clear the rubble and rescue buried people and that 1,000 more troops would be dispatched.

A local military official, Shi Huajie, told CCTV rescuers were working with limited equipment.

"The difficulty we face is that we don't have any excavators. Many of the people have been buried and our soldiers are trying to pull them out with human labor," Shi said. "It is very difficult to save people with our bare hands."

Five thousand tents and 100,000 thick, cotton coats and heavy blankets were being sent to help survivors cope with strong winds and temperatures of around 43 degrees Fahrenheit (6 degrees Celsius), the Qinghai provincial government said in a statement.

The epicenter of the first quake was 235 miles (380 kilometers) south-southeast of Golmud, a large city in Qinghai, at a depth of six miles (10 kilometers), the USGS said.

Xinhua cited officials at the China Earthquake Networks Center as saying at least 18 aftershocks have been reported and that more temblors exceeding magnitude 6 were likely to occur in the coming days.



http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/as_china_earthquake

odiaero:

God Save the World

The frequency with which these natural disasters are going off is scary !

That is to us we are at the last chapter of the world's history.

Surely at the end of time.

Posted it already https://www.nairaland.com/nigeria/topic-430240.0.html

princekevo:

That is to us we are at the last chapter of the world's history.

US again, Maybe they have gone to shake the earth crust of China like they did at Haiti to cause this earthquake

frosbel:

The frequency with which these natural disasters are going off is scary !

princekevo:

That is to us we are at the last chapter of the world's history.

please visit the USGS.gov website and look at the earthquake timeline over the last 100 years. frequency and intensity of earthquakes has not been greater to that of previous decades - the reporting of such earthquakes has thanx to the 24 hour international news cycle.

agathamari:

please visit the USGS.gov website and look at the earthquake timeline over the last 100 years. frequency and intensity of earthquakes has not been greater to that of previous decades - the reporting of such earthquakes has thanx to the 24 hour international news cycle.

Lol!!! And you bought this pieces of crap from them.

China’s tragic magnitude 6.9 earthquake on April 13 and the recent devastating earthquakes in Haiti, Chile, Mexico, and elsewhere have many wondering if this earthquake activity is unusual.
Scientists say 2010 is not showing signs of unusually high earthquake activity. Since 1900, an average of 16 magnitude 7 or greater earthquakes — the size that seismologists define as major — have occurred worldwide each year. Some years have had as few as 6, as in 1986 and 1989, while 1943 had 32, with considerable variability from year to year.

With six major earthquakes striking in the first four months of this year, 2010 is well within the normal range. Furthermore, from April 15, 2009, to April 14, 2010, there have been 18 major earthquakes, a number also well within the expected variation.

This is how the so called scientist confuse you guys with lies. To chide away from telling  us the reason why we had 6 major earthquakes jst within the space first 4months of the year, they have succeeded in subsiding people's thought and panics by telling you is a normal thing, but people like you and not me. I went to the article to see if they mentioned any year that there was 6 major earth quakes within the space of 4 months. But as you can see there is non. You should have used your God giving brain to reason that, if we can have 6 major earth quakes jst within the first quarter of the year, what if have another 10 -12 major one in remain 2 quaters? What would their lies still be? As you can see they left you with a prediction of wht we know is obvious, which is, there gonna be more quakes this same year.

The only mentioned the year that had highest magnitude of 32 was 1943, yet they failed to tell us if it was the total number of magnitude from different quakes that happened through out that year or jst in one quake. That is to leave you with more confusion. What is their comparisons with the previous years? Is it of the magnitude or of the frequent occurance? If it is of the magnitude how then do we relate it to this years frequent occurance and within a shortest space of time. Mind you, that irrespective of the magnitude, non of these quakes this year took not less than 100 human lives and not animal.

And please help me ask them that from April 15, 2009, to April 14, 2010, there have been 18 major earthquakes, and they believed it was still within their own expected variation. We want to know their expected variation from April 15th 2010 to 14th April 2011. So that when more happens this year we won't panic as long as is still within their expected variables.

^^^^^^^
"The only mentioned the year that had highest magnitude of 32 was 1943"  he said there were 32 major quakes (quake above a 4.0).  a magnitude 32 would litereraly tear the planet into pieces.  the largest earthquake on record was a 9.5 in chilie in 1960.    there are over 1,500 quakes a week globaly.  most below a 3.0  a massive quake (7.0 or higher) are relativly less comon . in 1905 there were 4 massive quakes in 6 months (7.8, 8, 8.4, 7.9).  3 in 1906 (8.8, 7.8, 8.2) 3 in 1922 (7.3, 7.1, 8.5) 3 in 1923 (7.2, 8.5, 7.9). 3 in 1925, 3 in 1927, 3 in 1933, 3 in 1938, 4 in 1944, 4 in 1946, 4 in 1949, 4 in 1954, 5 in 1955, 4 in 1957, 3 in 1958, 3 in 1963, 3 in 1964, 3 in 1965, 3 in 1966, 3 in 1967, 4 in 1970, 3 in 1971, 4 in 1975, 4 in 1976, 4 in 1980, 5 in 1983, 3 in 1985, 3 in 1986, 3 in 1987, 5 in 1988, 3 in 1989, 7 in 1992, 3 in 1994, 3 in 1995, 3 in 1997, 3 in 1998, 5 in 1999, years inbetween had 1-2. i assume you can look up magnitude on your own for the rest since i gave you a few already.

as far as most deaths: January 23, 1556 Shaanxi, China a 8.0 killed 830,000 people. on July 28, 1976 Tangshan, China a 7.5 killed 255,000. December 16, 1920 Ningxia–Gansu, China a 7.8 killed 234,117. September 1, 1923 Kantō region, Japan a 7.9 killed 142,000. October 6, 1948 Ashgabat, Turkmenistan a 7.3 killed 110,000.

earthquakes as well as all natural disasters come in cycles. periods of low activity and periods of high activity. now being we have only been able to measure quakes for little over 100 years and global real time mapping in the last 10-15 you have to go by historical documentation and even archelogical evidence.