A 4.7-magnitude earthquake struck the northern Chinese city of Tangshan on Sunday, according to the United States Geological Survey (USGS), reviving memories of a devastating 1976 quake there that was the deadliest in modern times.

Sunday's tremor occurred at 6:38 am (2238 GMT), the USGS said, with the epicentre in a suburban residential district just outside downtown Tangshan, about 200 kilometres east of Beijing.

China's seismological authority put the magnitude at 5.1 and said it struck at a depth of 10 kilometres (6 miles).

On July 28, 1976, Tangshan, then a coal mining city of about one million people, was obliterated by a 7.8-magnitude quake and subsequent 7.1 aftershock about 15 hours later.

China says about 240,000 people were killed, although it is widely believed to have downplayed the number for political reasons.

There were no immediate reports of damage from Sunday's tremor, which also caused slight shaking in Beijing.

State-run Xinhua news agency said passenger trains through the quake area were suspended pending an inspection of rail infrastructure for any damage.

Video posted on Twitter by Chinese state media showed items toppling off store shelves in Tangshan.

"I'm still a little afraid. After all, it's a 5.1 earthquake," a receptionist at the city's Tangjiashanhe Hotel told AFP by phone.

"I was 12 years old when the Tangshan earthquake happened in 1976."

Related Links
Bringing Order To A World Of Disasters
When the Earth Quakes
A world of storm and tempest

Tweet

Thanks for being here; We need your help. The SpaceDaily news network continues to grow but revenues have never been harder to maintain. With the rise of Ad Blockers, and Facebook - our traditional revenue sources via quality network advertising continues to decline. And unlike so many other news sites, we don't have a paywall - with those annoying usernames and passwords. Our news coverage takes time and effort to publish 365 days a year. If you find our news sites informative and useful then please consider becoming a regular supporter or for now make a one off contribution.
SpaceDaily Contributor $5 Billed Once credit card or paypal		SpaceDaily Monthly Supporter $5 Billed Monthly paypal only

Typhoon changed earthquake patterns
Potsdam, Germany (SPX) Jul 03, 2020
The Earth's crust is under constant stress. Every now and then this stress is discharged in heavy earthquakes, mostly caused by the slow movement of Earth's crustal plates. There is, however, another influencing factor that has received little attention so far: intensive erosion can temporarily change the earthquake activity (seismicity) of a region significantly. This has now been shown for Taiwan by researchers from the GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences in cooperation with international ... read more