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6.3-magnitude earthquake hits NW China's Qinghai

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2008-11-10 10:48

XINING -- An earthquake measuring 6.3 on the Richter scale hit northwest China's Qinghai Province at 9:22 am Monday. No casualties have been reported as yet.

The epicenter was in the Mongolian-Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture of Haixi, at 37.6 degrees north latitude and 95.9 degrees east longitude, about 716 kilometers west of the provincial capital Xining, according to the National Seismic Network.

Exactly an hour after the quake, the Qinghai provincial seismic network monitored an aftershock measuring 3.9 hit the same area.

The earthquake toppled several ramshackle huts in Da Qaidam district near the epicenter, and some other mud houses had cracks on their walls, said Gu Xiaodong, a deputy official of the administrative committee of the District.

The local government has sent three teams of 180 officials to investigate the losses in the quake-hit villages. "No casualties have been reported as yet," said Gu.

Local schools have closed for safety considerations and classes will be suspended for at least one day, he said.

Da Qaidam is sparsely populated with about 16,000 people, including Mongolians, Tibetans, Muslim Hui and Han, according to the county government's website.

Da Qaidam, which literally means "a big salt lake" in the Mongolian dialect, is rich in mineral resources, with one of the largest lead-zinc mines in western China and several coal mines.

Gu said the epicenter was close to two coal mines, Kaiyuan and Dameigou. "But no serious damage has been incurred to the mine facilities so far."

The quake was clearly felt in the provincial capital Xining,

"We all jumped in the middle of our morning editorial meeting," said Xinhua reporter Ma Yong based in Xining. The office is on the third floor of a four-storey building downtown.

The tremor was also felt in the industrial city Golmud -- the starting point of the world's highest plateau railway that links to Tibet -- and Haixi prefecture's capital Delinha.

When the quake struck, many people ran out of buildings. "Some residents said it was the biggest tremor they felt since the 8.1-magnitude quake jolted Hol Xil in 2001", said Luo Zhenggang, an official in Golmud.

Hol Xil, a major nature reserve and habitat for the critically-endangered Tibetan antelopes, is in the Kunlun Mountain Range and is near Golmud.