A Chinese seismologist has told the Global Times that there is no causative relationship between the two earthquakes which shook Southwest China's Sichuan Province and Northwest China's Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region within 24 hours of each other.
A 6.6-magnitude earthquake struck Jinghe county in the Bortala Mongolian Autonomous Prefecture, Xinjiang, at 7:27 a.m. Wednesday, according to a statement from the China Earthquake Networks Center (CENC).
Before the tremor rocked Jinghe, a much deadlier 7.0-magnitude earthquake jolted Jiuzhaigou county, about 3,000 kilometers away, on Tuesday night. By Wednesday morning, the official death toll of the quake amounted to 13, and 175 others were injured, the publicity bureau of Sichuan's Aba Prefecture, said on its official Sina Weibo account.
"These two earthquakes are caused by the activity of the Earth's tectonic plates, and there's not necessarily a connection between the two," Xu Deshi, a senior researcher with the China Earthquake Administration told the Global Times Wednesday, adding that Jinghe and Jiuzhaigou are located on different plates and in different earthquake zones.
However, the fact that the second earthquake occurred so soon after the first may indicate that China has entered a period of relatively high seismic activity, said CENC researcher Sun Shihong.
Xu said that China is currently exploring effective earthquake prediction methods.
