Magnitude 7.1 Earthquake Hits Tibet, Kills at Least 53
Udumbara
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The area is prone to earthquakes, being on the fault line marking the collision zone of the Eurasia and Indian plates marked by the Himalayas.
A magnitude 7.1 earthquake, followed by multiple strong 5.0 magnitude aftershocks, was recorded on the morning of Jan. 7 in Tibet, near the border with Nepal. At least 53 people were killed and another 62 injured, Chinese state media have reported.
About 1,500 fire and rescue workers were deployed to search for people in the rubble, China’s Ministry of Emergency Management said.
According to the United States Geological Survey (USGS), the epicenter of the quake was about 50 miles (75 kilometers) northeast of Mount Everest and had a depth of around 10 kilometers. It occurred at 9:03 a.m. local time. The China Earthquake Networks Center recorded the quake as a magnitude 6.8.
State broadcaster CCTV said there are a handful of communities within 3 miles (5 kilometers) of the epicenter, which was 380 kilometers (240 miles) from Lhasa, the capital of Tibet, and about 23 kilometers (14 miles) from the region’s second-largest city of Shigatse, known as Xigaze in Chinese.
About 230 kilometers (140 miles) away in Nepal’s capital, Kathmandu, the earthquake woke up residents and sent them running out of their homes into the streets. No information was immediately available from the remote, mountainous areas of Nepal closer to the epicenter.
The area is prone to earthquakes, being on the fault line marking the collision zone of the Eurasia and Indian plates marked by the Himalayas.
There have been 10 earthquakes of at least magnitude 6 in the area where Tuesday’s quake hit over the past century, the USGS said.
In 2015, two earthquakes greater than magnitude 7 hit nearby Nepal, killing around 8,600 people and causing widespread damage.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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