Magnitude 5.5 earthquake strikes China near source of Yellow River

Magnitude 5.5 earthquake strikes China near source of Yellow River

The Qinghai-Tibetan plateau has been jolted by seismic activity since Tuesday, including a deadly 6.8-magnitude quake in the foothills of the Himalayas.

This US geological survey image shows Wednesday’s Qinghai earthquake in relation to an earthquake in Tibet on Tuesday. (USGS pic)
BEIJING:
A magnitude 5.5 earthquake shook parts of the Chinese province of Qinghai on Wednesday, with its epicentre located near the source of the Yellow River, the main natural waterway serving northern China.

The vast Qinghai-Tibetan plateau has been jolted by seismic activity since Tuesday, including a deadly 6.8-magnitude quake in the foothills of the Himalayas in Tibet and a smaller 3.1-magnitude quake in Sichuan.

The epicentre of the Qinghai quake, which struck at 3.44pm, was located in Madoi county in the Golog prefecture at a depth of 14km, according to the China Earthquake Networks Centre (CENC).

It was about 200km west of the county seat of Madoi, a town populated mainly by Tibetans, including former nomadic herders and their families who have resettled in government-built homes over the years.

Earthquakes are common along the edges of the seismically active Qinghai-Tibetan plateau, including Madoi.

A total of 102 quakes of magnitude 3 or higher have been logged within 200km of Wednesday’s quake over the past five years, according to CENC, with the largest reaching a magnitude of 7.4 in 2021.

The epicentre of Qinghai quake on Wednesday is about 1,000km northeast of the quake in Tibet a day earlier.

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