Key occasions
The Related Press has put collectively a brief timeline of the worst earthquake to hit China in recent times, together with the 2008 Sichuan quake that killed almost 90,000 individuals.
It notes that earthquakes in China occur most regularly on the Tibetan Plateau or its fringes. The seismically lively space is the place the India and Eurasia plates conflict and trigger uplifts that may be sturdy sufficient to vary the heights of Himalayan peaks. Right here’s the timeline:
— Could 2008: A magnitude 7.9 earthquake leaves almost 90,000 individuals lifeless or lacking and presumed lifeless in Sichuan province.
— April 2010: A magnitude 7.1 earthquake kills 2,698 individuals in Qinghai province.
— April 2013: A magnitude 7.0 earthquake kills 196 individuals in Sichuan.
— July 2013: A magnitude 6.6 earthquake kills 95 individuals in Gansu province.
— August 2014: A magnitude 6.1 earthquake kills 617 individuals in Yunnan province.
— September 2022: A magnitude 6.8 earthquake kills 93 individuals in Sichuan.
— December 2023: A magnitude 6.2 earthquake kills no less than 126 individuals in Gansu and Qinghai provinces.
Some extra photos have are available from Lhatse county in Shigatse, the Tibetan metropolis worst hit by the earthquake:
Chinese language President Xi Jinping has ordered “all-out” rescue efforts to avoid wasting lives and minimise casualties, the state-run information company Xinhua reported.
The president had additionally “urged efforts to forestall secondary disasters, correctly resettle affected residents, and deal with the aftermath work successfully”, it reported.
In addition to Kathmandu, areas round Lobuche in Nepal within the excessive mountains close to Everest have been additionally rattled by the tremor and aftershocks, AFP reported.
“It shook fairly strongly right here, everyone seems to be awake,” stated authorities official Jagat Prasad Bhusal in Nepal’s Namche area, which lies nearer to Everest.
However no harm or deaths had been reported to this point and safety forces had been deployed, Nepali residence minister spokesman Rishi Ram Tiwari stated.
Nepal lies on a significant geological faultline the place the Indian tectonic plate pushes up into the Eurasian plate, forming the Himalayas, and earthquakes are an everyday incidence.
In 2015, almost 9,000 individuals died and greater than 22,000 have been injured when a 7.8-magnitude quake struck Nepal, destroying greater than half 1,000,000 houses.
Photos are beginning to trickle in from the areas affected by the earthquake, though they’re nonetheless few and much between. Listed here are a pair from Kathmandu, the capital of Nepal, the place tremors despatched individuals out onto the streets:
Opening abstract
Howdy and welcome to our stay protection of the earthquake in Tibet.
The quake struck close to one in all Tibet’s holiest cities, the China Earthquake Networks Centre (CENC) has stated, killing no less than 53 individuals and collapsing “many buildings” with tremors additionally felt in neighbouring Nepal’s capital Kathmandu and elements of India.
The quake struck Dingri county with a magnitude of 6.8 close to the border with Nepal on Tuesday morning, in response to the China Earthquake Networks Centre (CENC). The US Geological Survey reported the tremor as magnitude 7.1.
“Fifty-three individuals have been confirmed lifeless, and 62 others injured as of Tuesday midday, after a 6.8-magnitude earthquake jolted Dingri County within the metropolis of Xigaze in Xizang (Tibet) Autonomous Area at 9:05 am Tuesday,” the official Xinhua information company stated.
Movies revealed by China’s state broadcaster CCTV confirmed destroyed homes with partitions torn aside and rubble strewn throughout the ruins within the aftermath of the earthquake.
Temperatures in Dingri are round minus 8 levels Celsius and can drop to minus 18 this night, in response to the China Meteorological Administration, AFP reported.
The high-altitude county within the Tibet area is residence to about 62,000 individuals and located on the Chinese language aspect of Mount Everest.
Whereas earthquakes are frequent within the area, Tuesday’s quake was essentially the most highly effective recorded inside a 200-kilometre radius within the final 5 years, the CENC added.
Stick with us as we cowl the developments.
Supply hyperlink