Herald-Sun

Powerful Earthquake Hits China By TED ANTHONY : Associated Press Writer Nov 14, 2001 : 7:28 am ET

BEIJING -- An extremely powerful earthquake shook a thinly populated and mountainous region of northwestern China on Wednesday, Chinese and U.S. government seismologists said. There were no immediate reports of casualties or damage.

The 8.1-magnitude quake, which hit at 5:26 p.m. local time, was centered in the Kunlun mountain area near the border of Qinghai province and the Xinjiang region in China's far northwest, said the State Seismology Bureau in Beijing.

The Xinjiang Seismology Bureau in Urumqi, Xinjiang's capital, confirmed the temblor, said few people live in the rugged region and said there were no reports of deaths or injuries.

The area hit is about 1,250 miles west of Beijing, the Chinese capital.

Bruce Presgrave, a seismologist at the U.S. Geological Survey's National Earthquake Information Center in Golden, Colo., said that even though the area was remote, a quake of such strength could do some damage.

"It is so big, it could cause landslides in some of the valleys," Presgrave said.

Earthquakes are common in remote regions of China, though an 8.1-magnitude tremor anywhere is considered extremely strong.

China's two most lethal earthquakes of the past century -- in 1920 and 1976 -- hit populated areas and killed more than 100,000 people and 240,000 people respectively. The 1920 quake was magnitude 8.6; the 1976 tremor was between 7.8 and 8.2.

Late last month, a 6-magnitude quake hit southwestern China's Yunnan province, killing a woman and collapsing more than 3,400 buildings.

-- Anonymous, November 14, 2001