A magnitude 5 earthquake that struck Monday in southwest China left 4 dead and 23 wounded, according to the country’s Center for Seismic Networks.
The earthquake in Qiaojia County of Yunnan Province occurred at 9:47 p.m. at a depth of 8 kilometers (5 miles).
The United States Geological Survey calculated that the quake had a magnitude of 4.5 and a depth of 10 kilometers (6 miles), while giving slightly different data on the time it occurred and the location of the epicenter. Those kinds of discrepancies are not unusual, given the huge distances involved.
At least one house collapsed and residents said the movement lasted several seconds. Shallow earthquakes tend to cause more damage to buildings and infrastructure.
Earthquakes are frequent in the area, which lies on the eastern slopes of the Tibetan plateau. An earthquake in 1976 with an epicenter in the north-eastern city of Tangshan left at least 250,000 dead.
The worst earthquake in China in recent years occurred in the western mountainous portion of Sichuan province, north of Yunnan, in 2008, killing nearly 90,000 people.
– .
