February 24, 2003 - An earthquake with a magnitude between 6.8 struck the Xinjiang region of China, killing at least 257 people and injuring more than 1,000. Earthquakes are a common geologic event in China. This most recent trembler has left the government scrambling to improve on prediction techniques to prevent further disaster.
China rests in one of the most seismic regions of the world making earthquake risks quite high. It is located near the circum-Pacific belt, a trail around the Pacific Ocean's outer edge. (Lutgens/Tarbuck - p. 309) Island chains such as Japan and the Philippines suffer the greatest along this belt. China has been troubled with many destructive earthquakes during its history. In terms of deaths, the most significant one occurred in 1556 in Shensi. An estimated 830,000 people died producing possibly the greatest recorded natural disaster. Its second most destructive earthquake happened recently in the Liaoning Province in 1975. (Lutgens/Tarbuck - p. 322).
China's land surface is rugged and uneven. A great deal of its total area consists of mountains and hills. Traveling westward across the country means going steadily upward through a series of hills, ridges, plateaus, and elevated basins. An area with such extreme differences in its landscape generally means there is a great deal of plate tectonic activity. According to Dr. Marleen Nyst, a new tectonic plate is being formed in Southeast Asia. As a result, China can anticipate severe earthquakes (Link 1).
The western part of the Xinjiang region, where the powerful earthquake struck, lies along a large strike-slip fault. This is known as the Altyn Tagh fault, which is much longer than California's San Andreas fault (Link 2). Although the cause of the earthquake is not official, it's definitely a possibility that it could have originated somewhere along this fault. .
The Altyn Tagh fault, along with the Kunlun fault, is responsible for the continuing collisions between the Asian and Indian tectonic plates (Link 3).
