Extremely dangerous earthquake in Xinjiang, China

Last update: February 12, 2014 at 1:40 pm by By Armand Vervaeck

Update 13:24 UTC : Cattle is reportedly killed in the greater epicenter area. Some train connections where temporarily suspended in Xinjiang but where restored after inspection of the rails proved that no damage was inflicted (at a big distance from the epicenter).
the picture below shows the (beautiful) scenery in the valley near the epicenter. The epicenter is located in the (not visible) mountains behind this picture. People in Xinjiang are used to earthquakes, even strong earthquakes but primitive old houses are very vulnerable for damage.

Update 11:59 UTC : The Xinjiang seismological authority reports that several houses collapsed in the greater epicenter area. We expect more news from the rescue teams in 1 to 2 hours. The Chinese Earthquake response is one of the quickest and best organized in the world. China has a history of many cruel earthquakes sometimes with +100000 fatalities.
A new shake-map has been published by USGS. They are now reporting a IX MMI in the unpopulated epicenter area.

Update 11:33 UTC :
Official statement from the Xinjiang Earthquake authority :
Yutian County, 7.3 magnitude earthquake.
The Xinjiang autonomous Seismological Bureau immediately launched an emergency plan. We try to quickly find out what happened in the epicenter area and called Yutian County by telephone. Locations in Yutian county felt the earthquake strongly. Buildings in Yutian are reported with cracks. No word of  casualties so far.
Officers have been send to the epicenter area to investigate the disaster. Autonomous Region Seismological Bureau intends to sent a 23 people on-site work team with a  flight to conduct field work. Hotan Prefecture Earthquake Seismic Bureau has rushed staff  to the quake zone to report on the disaster. China Seismological Bureau will sent 13 people for earthquake fieldwork  and to assist the local governments to carry out emergency work days.

Update 10:27 UTC: A rescue team was sent by the Xinjiang government to check the affected area.

Update 09:54 UTC : An aftershock of M5.7 @ 5 km depth is just reported by one of my colleagues. Such an aftershock alone can be damaging in China!

Update 09:53 UTC : Max Wyss reports that he expects 0 to 50 fatalities and 0 to 120 injured but his data is based on the USGS data who report a Magnitude of 6.8 at 2 km. Chinese data are more dangerous at 7.3 at 12 km deep. Max Wyss also reports that only 1 small settlement is located within the 50 km radius around the epicenter.

Update 09:49 UTC : A similar strength earthquake along the same fault killed 100 people in 1924!

Update 09:41 UTC : CEIC, the seismological agency of the Chinese government is reporting a Magnitude of 7.3 at a depth of 12 km !

Update 09:39 UTC : The epicenter is located in a sparsely populated area, but the Magnitude is so strong that we expect serious damage and injured people in a radius of  at least 50 km.

This earthquake is EXTREMELY DANGEROUS for all villages in a radius of 50 km around the epicenter. Slight damage can be expected in a radius as far as 150 km from the epicenter.

844 km NE of Ludhiāna, India / pop: 1,545,368 / local time: 14:49:48.0 2014-02-12
739 km NE of Shimla, India / pop: 173,503 / local time: 14:49:48.0 2014-02-12
277 km SE of Hotan, China / pop: 114,000 / local time: 17:19:48.0 2014-02-12

Most important Earthquake Data:

Magnitude : 6.9

Local Time (conversion only below land) : 2014-02-12 17:19:50

GMT/UTC Time : 2014-02-12 09:19:50

from:    http://earthquake-report.com/2014/02/12/very-strong-earthquake-southern-xinjiang-china-on-february-12-2014/