The China Earthquake Networks Center has reported a Magnitude 6.5 Earthquake at a depth of 12 km, in Ludian County in northeastern Yunnan Province, at about 4.30 pm local time (8.30 am GMT) on Sunday 3 August 2014. This is a large quake, and reportedly involved considerable lateral movement, making it particularly dangerous, and the Xinhau News Agency are reporting 26 known deaths and 79 injuries in Qiaojia County at the time of writing, with many of the dead and injured being children caught as a primary school collapsed.
Damaged housing in Ludian County following the 3 August 2014 Yunnan Earthquake. Xinhau.
Much of western China and neighbouring areas of Central Asia and the Himalayas, are prone to Earthquakes caused by the impact of the Indian Plate into Eurasia from the south. The Indian Plate is moving northwards at a rate of 5 cm per year, causing it to impact into Eurasia, which is also moving northward, but only at a rate of 2 cm per year. When two tectonic plates collide in this way and one or both are oceanic then one will be subducted beneath the other (if one of the plates is continental then the other will be subducted), but if both plates are continental then subduction will not fully occur, but instead the plates will crumple, leading to folding and uplift (and quite a lot of Earthquakes). The collision of the Indian and Eurasian plates has lead to the formation of the Himalayan Mountains, the Tibetan Plateau, and the mountains of southwest China, Central Asia and the Hindu Kush.
The approximate location of the 3 August 2014 Yunnan Earthquake. Google Maps.
See also...
The United States Geological Survey recorded a Magnitude 5.9 Earthquake at a depth of 10 km in Yingjiang County in eastern Yunnan Province, China, close to the border with Myanmar, at...
The United States Geological Survey recorded a Magnitude 4.6 Earthquake at a depth of 29.9 km in Huize County in the northeast...
The United States Geological Survey recorded a Magnitude 4.4 Earthquake at a depth of 15.6 km in northeast Jinggu County in...
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