In the wake of the 6-point-8-magnitude earthquake that struck Dingri county in Southwest China's Xizang Autonomous Region last week, more than one-thousand aftershocks have been recorded. That includes two earthquakes above magnitude 3-point-0 on Sunday. A leading expert says there could be more aftershocks over the coming days.
WANG TUN, Director, Institute of Care-Life "In terms of the Dingri earthquake, it's a mainshock followed by aftershock type of event, and it's completely normal to have a series of aftershocks following the main Magnitude-6.8 shock. We can reference other mainshock-aftershock type earthquakes in this region, for example, the 8.1-magnitude earthquake that occurred in Nepal on the twenty fifth of April, 2015, which was also followed by many aftershocks. Strong aftershocks continued for more than a month, and there were still some aftershocks even last year. For mainshock-aftershock type earthquakes, the period between one major earthquake and the next major earthquake can all be considered aftershocks to some degree."
SUN YE, CGTN Reporter "In the last few days, other places in China like parts of Qinghai, Shanxi, also experienced small quakes. What does this mean?"
WANG TUN, Director, Institute of Care-Life "In the earthquakes over the past few days, the frequency appears high, but there's currently no statistical evidence showing that earthquakes in China have become more active, let alone saying global earthquakes have become more active. This still needs to be observed."