A major earthquake occurred in Tibet’s second largest city, Shigatse, on Tuesday morning and the shocks were also reported in Nepal and northern India. The earthquake, which occurred at 9:05 AM local time (01:05 GMT) and occurred at a depth of 10 km (6. 2 miles). The China Earthquake Networks Centre said the earthquake was of 6.8 magnitude on the Richter scale while the US Geological Survey gave it a 7.1 magnitude. Actually, 6.8 magnitude is considered strong and it can cause quite much of the damage.
Very strong 7.0 #quake hits near Shigatse, Tibet, China – info, user reports and updates | Jan 7, 2025 09:05 am (Shanghai time): https://t.co/WRKs73D34j
— Earthquake Monitor (@EQAlerts) January 7, 2025
The epicenter of the earthquake was only about 380 kilometers (236 miles) from Lhasa, the capital city of the Tibet Autonomous Region of the People’s Republic of China. China’s state broadcaster CCTV said some communities within 5 km, or 3 miles, of the epicentre were affected and images from a nearby town of Lhatse revealed toppled shop fronts and debris on the roads. According to news agency Xinhua, buildings in Tonglai village in Tibet’s Tingri county had crumbled and the death toll was being counted.
There were also some vibrations in Nepal where reports of strong shake was reported in Kathmandu 400 km (248 miles) away from the hypocenter. People left their homes and houses were swaying. Some shocks spread as far as the vicinity of Mount Everest to Lobuche area and the aftershocks occurred in the area. In Bihar of northern India, the quake was felt but there was no information about significant losses available at the moment.
Southwestern China is tectonically active as CCTV observed there were 29 earthquakes of magnitude 3 and above around Shigatse in the last five years all of which were less than Tuesday’s earthquake. A devastating earth quake in Sichuan province in 2008 caused the loss of nearly seventy thousand people. Consequently, another disastrous 7.8 magnitude shocked Nepal in 2015 leaving about 9,000 people dead.
(Source: Al Jazeera and news agencies)
