World’s largest dam quake network
November 21st, 2011 | Shanghai DailyCHINA has established the world’s largest seismological network for monitoring and preventing earthquakes near major reservoirs, a senior scientist said yesterday.
The network is located in the lower reaches of the Jinsha River, which constitutes part of the upper reaches of the Yangtze River, China’s longest waterway, Chen Houqun, a member of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, said at a hydropower development forum in central China’s Hubei Province.
Several dams with a height of over 300 meters have been built in west China in recent years, a region that has also experienced 82 percent of the country’s strongest earthquakes, Chen said.
Authorities should be wary of earthquakes that occur near major reservoirs, despite the fact that strong jolts are rare in those areas, he said.