No casualties were reported late yesterday in the wake of an
earthquake measuring 5.9 on the Richter scale that rocked a
sparsely populated area of north China’s Inner
Mongolia Autonomous Region.
“Although 13 aftershocks with a maximum of 3.5 were monitored
following the major shock--the strongest of its type so far this
year--no casualties or damage were immediately reported,” said Zeng
Guoping, an official with Inner Mongolia’s regional seismological
bureau.
The earthquake hit the central-eastern part of Inner Mongolia at
9:53 am, according to the China Seismological Bureau.
“It was a shallow one that occurred on the northeast seismic
belt, which set off several quakes with a magnitude above 5 last
August,” said Zeng.
There are fears that in the tremor-jolted area, at least 30
percent of the houses, mostly built of adobe or brick, or tents,
might be damaged.
“The major difficulty for homeless victims there is to find
shelter during cold spring days, since the temperature drops to
minus 10 Celsius at night,” said Ba Tu, of the seismological
station in Xilin Gol League.
The epicenter of the quake, located at 45.4 degrees north
latitude and 118.2 degrees east longitude, is in the juncture area
between Dong Ujimqin Banner and Xi Ujimqin Banner and is 230
kilometers from Xilin Hot.
Tremors were so strong that they could be felt near Beijing in
Chengde, Hebei Province, and in the northeast at Chaoyang, Liaoning
Province and Baicheng, Jilin Province.
More than 40 emergency rescue personnel from the China and Inner
Mongolia seismological bureaus went to the quake-jolted areas
yesterday to investigate the situation and help deal with the
aftermath.
(China Daily March 25, 2004)