Netizen mentioned a view that "there will be a major earthquake after a severe drought." Experts introduced that this statement has no scientific basis.
Red Net Time News September 5th (Reporter Lu Xin) At 12:52 on September 5th, a magnitude 6.8 earthquake occurred in Luding County, Ganzi Prefecture, Sichuan Province, with a depth of 16 kilometers. After the earthquake, some netizens mentioned a view that "there will be a major earthquake after a severe drought." Many citizens said that their mobile phones received earthquake warning information, saying that it would be transmitted to Changsha in about 180 seconds. To this end, the reporter interviewed engineer Wang Zhennan, , Hunan Provincial Earthquake Bureau, to answer netizens' questions and the impact of the earthquake on Hunan.
The magnitude 6.8 earthquake in Luding County, Ganzi Prefecture, Sichuan occurred on in the north-south seismic zone of in my country. The epicenter is about 1,100 kilometers away from Changsha. According to the law of seismic wave propagation, the P wave of this earthquake arrived in Changsha about 180 seconds after the earthquake. Residents living on high-rise buildings may see slight shaking of hanging objects, but Hunan is not in the earthquake zone, and the earthquake will not significantly affect Changsha. Wang Zhennan said, "At present, no reports of tremors have been received in various parts of the province."
Hunan is not on China's strong earthquake belt, but the new tectonic movement of crust settlement has made Hunan a province with more earthquakes in the southern provinces. Wang Zhennan said that overall, there are not many earthquakes in Hunan, and the intensity of is not high. "The latest destructive earthquake was a double peak 4.8 earthquake in 1931. There has been no destructive earthquake in Hunan for more than 90 years."
"There will be a major earthquake after a severe drought. There is no scientific basis for this statement." Wang Zhennan introduced that the so-called "there will be a major earthquake after a severe drought" may come from the "drought earthquake theory" proposed by a few seismologists, but this is not the consensus view of mainstream scientists. There is no research yet that the occurrence of the 6.8-magnitude earthquake in Luding County is significantly related to the recent drought.
At present, earthquake forecasting is still a global scientific problem. Strengthening seismic fortification is the most direct and effective way to reduce the losses of earthquake disasters and . Wang Zhennan introduced that the Hunan Seismic Measuring Station Network consists of 26 Seismic Measuring Stations, 10 special monitoring stations for reservoirs, and 18 seismic Measuring Stations in the surrounding provinces, with a total of 54 stations. It can effectively monitor magnitude 1.8 and magnitude 2.5 earthquakes in the province and magnitude 2.5 in the province. Hunan is vigorously implementing the Hunan sub-project of the National earthquake intensity rapid reporting and early warning project, and will add 140 new monitoring sites by the end of 2022.
