Published on : Thursday, February 13, 2014
China was struck by a strong earthquake of 6.8-magnitude in its western region of Xinjiang on Wednesday 12.02.14. The tremor was only 12.5 kilometres (eight miles) deep but hit about 270 kilometres east-southeast of Hotan.
Soon after five minutes another quake struck of 5.7 magnitudes which was five kilometres deep, followed by a series of aftershocks of up to 4.2 magnitude
The residents though sparse in the area felt their windows rattle but owing to the marginal population in the place there were no reported causalities. A less than a minute shaking was felt in the area.
A previous 7.3-magnitude earthquake struck the same county in March 2008, affecting 40,000 people, destroying 200 homes and causing an overall 10 million yuan ($1.7 million) in damage.
In the last April about 200 people died in the southwest in the Sichuan province due to a magnitude 6.6 quake. Almost 90,000 people died when a huge tremor struck the same province 5 years after. Twin 5.6 and 5.9 magnitude quakes killed at least 95 people in the northwest province of Gansu last July. But according to official sources there is a 65 per cent chance that the quake did not cause any fatalities or even causalities.
A place rich in natural resource Xinjiang contains 30 per cent of China’s onshore oil and gas deposits and 40 per cent of its coal.
Tags: china, earthquake, Xinjiang
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