Earthquake jolts northwest China
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2006-07-19 20:59
An earthquake measuring 5.6 degrees on the Richter scale jolted a county in
northwest China's Qinghai Province at 5:53 p.m. (Beijing Time) Wednesday,
according to the China Seismological Bureau.
The epicenter was located in a sparesly populated pasturing area on the
Qinghai-Tibet Plateau at 33.0 degrees north latitude and 96.3 degrees east
longitude, about 70 kilometers south of the county seat of Yushu.
The area was hit by another earthquake measuring 5.0 degrees on the Richter
scale on Tuesday.
No casualties from both the quakes have been reported, according to the
bureau.
With a population of 240,100, Yushu County is located in the southwest of
Qinghai. It is under the administration of the Yushu Tibetan Autonomous
Prefecture, which covers an area of 198,000 square kilometers or 27.5 percent of
the province's total.
The vast grasslands and snow mountains in the prefecture jointly form the
headwaters of three major rivers of China: the Yangtze River, the Yellow River
and the Lancang River.
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