Moderate quake flutter Qinghai Northwest China

2008-06-18 22:19:11 - A moderate earthquake jolted northwest China's Qinghai province twice within three hours on Wednesday, but there were no immediate reports of casualties and damage.

A earthquake of moderate intensity, 5.4 magnitude on Richter scale struck Zhiduo county in Hol Xi Nature Reserve followed by another of 5.0 in the sparsely populated Tanggula Range, located 5,000 m above the sea level, the China National Seismological Network said.

Qinghai-Tibet rail link, the world's highest railway, was not affected, a spokesman with the Qinghai Seismological Bureau was quoted as saying by a state-run news agency.The Hol Xil Reserve, which is home to 60,000 endangered Tibetan antelopes and wild yaks also did not report any casualty, the Reserve Administration Director Cega said.
Meanwhile, two people were killed and another injured after a 4.5 magnitude aftershock hit the northwestern Shaanxi province on Wednesday.

Three quakes measuring 5.1, 5.4 and 5.5 on the Richter Scale had hit the Tanggula Range in Qinghai's Mongolian-Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture of Haixi on 10th June but no casualties were reported.
The State Council Information Office, meanwhile, said the death toll from the massive quake that devastated southwest China on 12th May rose to 69,176 while 17,415 people were still missing.
The China Earthquake Administration said, in the 24 hours that ended on Wednesday noon, 201 aftershocks were monitored in the disaster zone, with five of the tremors above 4.0 magnitude but under 5.0 and the rest at or below 3.9 magnitude.A total of 12,812 aftershocks had been recorded since the temblor struck on 12th May.