WTF? (aftershocks)

UPDATE: 2 more aftershock hit almost exectly the same location in the north edge of Sichuan Province (see latitude and longitudes below). I hope this is the end of the fault and where all the stress were released.

• MAP 5.0 2008/05/27 17:35:09 32.711 105.440 10.0 SICHUAN-GANSU BORDER REGION, CHINA (jiangge, again)
• MAP 4.5 2008/05/27 13:59:37 32.621 105.213 21.0 SICHUAN-GANSU BORDER REGION, CHINA (SW of Jiangge, NE of Jiangyou)
• MAP 5.5 2008/05/27 08:37:51 32.740 105.563 10.0 SICHUAN-GANSU BORDER REGION, CHINA (Ningqiang)
• MAP 5.2 2008/05/27 08:03:23 32.728 105.552 10.0 SICHUAN-GANSU BORDER REGION, CHINA (Jiangge)

UPDATE: Another quake of 5.5 (5.7 as measured by China) crossed the Sichuan borader to NE into Ningqiang County of Shanxi province. 30 minutes earlier a 5.2 aftershock at 4 km to its west, across a reservoir, almost right on the provincial border, east of Shazhou town, Jiange County. (this time USGS and CEAI agree on the grade)


View Larger Map

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Source of map CSI.AC.CN

This is very usual. Another quake (is it aftershock, or a new dislocation?) just hit a couple hours ago. There had not been a quake over 5.0 (USGS measurement, add about 0.5 for Chinese measurement) since May 19th, and no over 4.0 quake for over 32 hours.

• One shock of 4.6 hit at right at Beichuan County (the town 31.9N,104.5E) at UTC 04:27 May 25th.


• Then anotherof 5.8 6.0 (reported as 6.4 by China) 4 hours later, at SW of Qingchuan. This is the strongest quake since May 13th


• About 1 hour later, a 4.9 aftershock hit Gansu. This is the first time in the past few month any aftershock over 4.0 was located inside Gansu province. It is possible that the dislocation is shifting NE. (33N, 105E - Jianshan Village, between Wenxian and Longnan of Gansu Province) . But let's hope (also possible) that this seals the other end of this phase of earth crust activities in that fault line.

Number of 5.0+ earthquake since the first 7.9 (8.0 by Chinese Earthquake Bureau)

• May 12th: 29
  May 13th: 10
  May 14th: 11
  May 15th: 5
  May 16th: 6
  May 17th: 2
  May 18th: 3
  May 19th: 3
  May 20th: 1
  May 21st: 2
• May 22nd: 3
• May 23rd: 2
• May 24th: 0
• May 25th: 3
• May 26th: 1
• May 27th: 4