Thursday, February 5, 2009

Sichuan earthquake possibly man-made?

The Telegraph had an interesting (and horrifying) article yesterday (090203/Malcolm Moore/Shanghai ) about the possibility of the May 12th, 2008 Sichuan earthquake possibly being caused by a large dam that lies very near the fault line.

The 511ft-high Zipingpu dam holds 315 million tonnes of water and lies just 550 yards from the fault line, and three miles from the epicentre, of the Sichuan earthquake.
Now scientists in China and the United States believe the weight of water, and the effect of it penetrating into the rock, could have affected the pressure on the fault line underneath, possibly unleashing a chain of ruptures that led to the quake.
Fan Xiao, the chief engineer of the Sichuan Geology and Mineral Bureau in Chengdu, said it was "very likely" that the construction and filling of the reservoir in 2004 had led to the disaster.

Article continues here...

5 comments:

  1. I wanted to read the article but I can't open it...

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  2. I checked the link and it opens fine on my computer. pls try again or cut and paste: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/china/4434400/Chinese-earthquake-may-have-been-man-made-say-scientists.html

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  3. The following blog posting offers links to all the relevant background documents on this topic: http://internationalrivers.org/en/node/3827/

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  4. Thank-you Peter, unfortunately this link seems to be blocked in China. (your website might be blocked for reasons I'm sure you'll understand...). Next time I'm outside the filter I'll look it up.

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  5. Update: Other readers have reported that link can be opened on other browsers, Firefox for example. Please read.

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