6.9 Earthquake Strikes China

reply to post by SonOfTheLawOfOne

Yes, people feel the ground shake. But unless at least three seismometers record the earthquake it cannot be located. If it cannot be located it is not added to the database. So yes, there are earthquakes which people feel but do not get recorded. There are fewer such unrecorded earthquakes now that there are thousands of more stations which can be used to locate them. There is no indication that there are more earthquakes now but it is certain that more are located and put in the database.

The USGS had not admitted that they "skewed" any numbers. In the 70's a more effective magnitude scale came into use. For some earthquakes the MMS scale provides a higher magnitude than the obsolete Richter scale and for some it provides a lower magnitude. For example, the 1960 Chile earthquake had a Richter magnitude of about 8.5, on the MMS scale it was 9.5. For earthquakes of 7.0 and less, there is not much difference between the two.

[edit on 4/13/2010 by Phage]

reply to post by Phage

The year 1997 marked the one hundredth anniversary of the general deployment of standardized and calibrated seismographs. It started with nine seismograph stations in 1898 that were capable of detecting, locating and measuring earthquakes of magnitude 7.0 or larger (M 7.0) anywhere in the globe. As a result, major earthquakes have been monitored globally and continuously for more than 100 years. By 1931 there were 350 stations operating worldwide that were locating and measuring M 6.5 earthquakes globally. By the 1950s the system of seismographs could locate all M 6.0 events occurring globally.

www.icr.org...

Source: T. M. Tsapanos and P. W. Burton, "Seismic Hazard Evaluation for Specific Seismic Regions of the World," Tectonophysics 194 (1991): p. 154.

Mod Edit: External Source Tags – Please Review This Link.

[edit on 14/4/2010 by Mirthful Me]

reply to post by tauristercus

Neat. Too bad the database you used doesn't seem to include them. Or should I say, the search doesn't find them. Probably has something to do with this:

For global events, magnitudes are not routinely reported until the early 1960s. This means, for example, that the largest earthquake observed - the 1960 Chilean earthquake (Mw 9.5) - appears in this catalog without an associated magnitude.

So an earthquake with no magnitude in the catalog will not be found in a search for a magnitude range of 6.0 - 6.9, will it? Why are you disregarding what ANSS says about its own database? It is the one you used, isn't it?

[edit on 4/13/2010 by Phage]

one thing i noticed about these quakes in China
is that most times quakes happen along fault lines.

In this case I saw no fault lines in that area
and there were 3 lumped together in the space
of a few hrs.

Maybe I'm wrong

How can that be explained???

Originally posted by asala
Im hearring word that its just about to be upgraded to about a 7.1
Via the china earthquake networks...

Will update if more comes up.

So you speak Chinese Asala? Or maybe do you have a link (in English) where they are talking about this?

Now I'd be curious to see that happen, when this event has already been reviewed by a seismologist at USGS.

Originally posted by boondock-saint
one thing i noticed about these quakes in China
is that most times quakes happen along fault lines.

In this case I saw no fault lines in that area
and there were 3 lumped together in the space
of a few hrs.

Maybe I'm wrong

How can that be explained???

Could it Be this? Some large oil and gas fields here . KK I had the right area aaak I need sleep)
www.cnpc.com.cn...




[edit on 13-4-2010 by bluemooone2]

Never mind.
Aftershock.

[edit on 4/13/2010 by Phage]

Ugh. I don't post much on here, I mostly lurk in forums as I don't have much to say. But I have to speak up a bit here.

Some of the others in the Yellowstone thread have brought it up time and again, WE ARE CURRENTLY RIGHT WHERE WE ARE SUPPOSED TO BE with respect to the number of earthquakes that have occurred, even in the 6.0 range this year (earthquake.usgs.gov...).

There are, IMHO, 2 reasons why everyone goes to the fly-off-the-handle button.

1) Better reporting, not necessarily on USGS or anyone else's end, but by the media. I mean take a look at some of the earthquakes that happened, say in, 2001 around this time in the 6.0 - 7.0 range and then see if you can find a corresponding news article about it. You won't see anything. The media is only reporting more and more because of the recent tragic earthquakes in Haiti and Chili as well as the less recent Tsunami threats. If you've noticed, CNN has had at least a blurb about every 6.5+ quake near population centers in the last couple months, which leads to my second point ...

2) These quakes ARE occurring more often near population centers. No media outlet cares to report, heck no one even KNOWS (aside from .00001% of the population that are interested in EQ science) when an EQ occurs deep in a trench in the middle of the ocean. But suddenly there are more near population centers and it SEEMS as if Earth is going bonkers!

Just look at the facts folks. Also if you notice in 2000 - 2010 in tauristercus's graph, 6.0 eq's seem to be leveled off. And yet all of a sudden it's THIS YEAR that the eq's are going crazy! Again, simply perception.

earthquake.usgs.gov...

In 1931, there were about 350 stations operating in the world; today, there are more than 8,000 stations and the data now comes in rapidly from these stations by electronic mail, internet and satellite.

There is no doubt that more eq's are being recorded because there are more places to record them, more people to accurately verify them, and much less lost in translation due to e-mail etc. That COULD (note I say COULD) result in the discrepancies you see in the 6.0 graph. What I would like to see (and I don't have the time honestly to do it myself or I would, maybe tauristercus can help?) is the same sort of graphs for each range (4.0-4.9, 5.0-5.9) as well as random graphs from any given point (say 6.5). If they all show the same increases, then there may be something to that (even though USGS, again, disagrees as stated in the link above).

What I feel we SHOULD be discussing is WHY many earthquakes occur (let's face it, still a shaky science). Is it the moon and tides? The sun/spaceweather? Are our own population centers somehow to blame? I don't know the answers, but just pointing and saying "oh my god that's the 6th 6.0 eq reported on CNN this week - the world is coming to and end!" is complete and utter garbage. Question everything, research everything, throw out what doesn't make sense ... just don't throw out COMMON sense.

reply to post by bluemooone2


hey thanks for that
oil and gas huh ???? hmmmm

reply to post by TrueAmerican


official Chinese news say 7.1,

news.163.com...

and in English:

news.xinhuanet.com...

I am in China, and this morning I was told by some colleagues there was also a small 3.3 in Luxian area which is not far from my place.

Sad, reports are coming in:

Quake kills 67 people in remote Chinese Qinghai region

Chinese media say at least 67 people have died and others are trapped under rubble in Qinghai province after an earthquake said to be magnitude 6.9.

The quake struck at 0749 (2349 GMT) 380km (240 miles) south-south-east of the city of Golmud, at a depth of 10km, according to US Geological Survey data.

It appears that at least some of the deaths occurred in Qinghai's ethnic Tibetan town of Yushu.

The quake was followed by two tremors measuring 5.3 and 5.2.

"Soldiers have been dispatched to save the people buried in the collapsed houses," local official Huang Limin was quoted as saying by China's state news agency Xinhua.

The homes are built with thick walls and are strong, but if they collapsed they could hurt many people inside

"Certainly there have been people hurt," one resident told Reuters news agency.

"Rescuers are trying to pull them out. A lot of one-storey houses have collapsed. Taller buildings have held up, but there are big cracks in them."

People from the Yushu prefecture highway department were frantically trying to dig out colleagues trapped in a collapsed building, department official Ji Guodong told Reuters by telephone.

Zhuo De, an ethnic Tibetan resident of Yushu, who spoke by phone from the capital of Qinghai province, Xining, after contacting his family in Yushu, said dozens of people might have been hurt.

"The homes are built with thick walls and are strong, but if they collapsed they could hurt many people.

news.bbc.co.uk...

Oh no.. news just in (on my side of the world anyway...)

Approx 300 killed, 8000 injured in China Quake


edit* apologies did not realise this had already been posted on the several other quake threads

[edit on 14/4/10 by damn_ummmm]

reply to post by damn_ummmm

edit* apologies did not realise this had already been posted on the several other quake threads

No worries, they were all different news sources, making the validity of the claim more valid.

This is all building up to the big one headed for the U.S. east coast.
It is going to be annihilated.

- Lee

reply to post by lee anoma


Interesting! But..care to share why you think this?

at least 300 dead and 8000 missing according to latimes.

link to news

Originally posted by Missletow
First of all, I am glad there are no fatalities reported with this last quake.

Now, I really do feel the need to repeat something I've said in other earthquake threads on ATS. We have a 6.0 to 6.9 quake an average of once every 3 days. We are a third of the way through the year and at about a third of the global average. Right on target. Not more than usual. Dead on normalcy. Not slightly unusual. Totally normal. Get my meaning?

While Earthquakes might happen frequently all the time, and this is "nothing unusual" what IS unusual is the amount of publicity that they are getting- constantly getting the front page news stories. So either- the severity is getting worse- or the media is taking a joy ride with fear mongering- either way- "were" not being paranoid

reply to post by Dave157


Are you really sure about it? 7.1 quake in China kills 400

Originally posted by Wookiep
reply to post by lee anoma

 

Interesting! But..care to share why you think this?

I will venture a guess...

"2012!"

Just like after "The Day After Tomorrow", so many were convinced that humans were going to cause crazy weather phenomena never seen before, then an ice age due would immediately ensue. Take alarmist CNN newsman Miles O’Brien, for example.

“This is "The Day After Tomorrow" scenario that we're talking about,” O’Brien said after being confronted by Senator Inhofe on his climate reporting.

source

I see the same thing happening now, but this time with earthquakes, especially the catastrophic doomsday type event. Although obviously earthquakes are of serious concern as exampled by the Chinese who unfortunately lost their lives in this tragic event. Hopefully aid can get to those affected soon enough in their time of need.

My apologies to lee if there is any actual evidence for the prediction.

Speaking of The Day After Tomorrow ....

Link




There is probably already a thread about it so I have not created one.... just thought I would add this.