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Zipingpu Dam May Have Triggered the Sichuan Quake
bfwebster writes "An article in the Telegraph (UK) raises an interesting question: was the massive (7.9) Sichuan earthquake that wracked China last year and left millions homeless caused by ground stresses following the completion of the Zipingpu dam? As the article notes, 'The 511-ft-high Zipingpu dam holds 315 million tonnes of water and lies just 550 yards from the fault line, and three miles from the epicenter, of the Sichuan earthquake. Now scientists in China and the United States believe the weight of water, and the effect of it penetrating into the rock, could have affected the pressure on the fault line underneath, possibly unleashing a chain of ruptures that led to the quake.'" The Sichuan region is earthquake-prone, but has not seen anything as large as the 7.9-magnitude quake for perhaps millions of years. The Chinese government denies any connection between the dam and the earthquake and seems to be actively obstructing the access of scientists who want to investigate. The article concludes, "There is a history of earthquakes triggered by dams, including several caused by the construction of the Hoover Dam in the US, but none of such a magnitude."
Or maybe it could have been, "Have it smaller." I wonder if we'll ever know.
The CB App. What's your 20?
I feel a bad movie based on this where need to blow up dam to stop a super quake from happening is coming.
This is the country that strictly enforces a one-child-per-family law, and you think the Chinese government actually wants more people to take care of?
I choose later. Preferrably after I'm dead.
Tell that to your grandchildren.
Every natural disaster has a disproportionate effect on the poor! That's just one of the many, many reasons why it sucks to be poor!
I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
It could indeed have helped. There was a proposal a few years ago to inject water into faults, the idea being that this would lubricate the faults and trigger quakes sooner. That, of course, means more smaller quakes, rather than fewer really big ones.
Probably never came to anything due to liability concerns. Letting nature kill a few thousand is better than a human doing something that kills one who has a good lawyer. Woot. Unless it's burning fossil fuels, I suppose... never mind...
"The biggest problem with communication is the illusion that it has taken place."
Sorry folks.
They would have been better off if they hadn't elected the idiot Mayor and Governor.
People like to blame FEMA but FEMA did they typical job. The local and state governments where criminal.
It was the local government that failed to use the school buses to evacuate the people. Heck they even left them in the flood plane. My city has been hit by three storms. The School buses are always moved to stageing areas near shelters. The state government put police out side New Orleans to keep the people IN after the storm.
Heck the state didn't even have shelters for all the people. Texas had to provide shelters.
What really ticks me off is people forget about Mississippi. They took the worst hit for Katrina. They had a HUGE store surge that took out whole sections of their coast line. They had many homes whipped out but you don't see people up in arms because their state and local governments where a lot more effective.
What is the worst part. That idiot moron of a mayor GOT REELECTED!!!!!!!!!!!
See my blog http://ilovecookes.blogspot.com/ for light hearted technical information.
"This earthquake killed a lot of people and ruined the lives of countless others. That effect was disproportionate on the poor."
Chinese poor have always been expendable. They are easily replaced, and their rulers have always understood this.
"This post is an artistic work of fiction and falsehood. Only a fool would take anything posted here as fact."
Back in the 40s and 50s Americans also used to just sigh and call it the "Price of progress." There used to be widespread acceptance of infrastructure development. Attitudes started changing in the 60's and 70's. It's a lot easier to be against infrastructure development when you live in a nation with well developed infrastructure.
What is the worst part. That idiot moron of a mayor GOT REELECTED!!!!!!!!!!!
And, bringing it around full circle, electing terrible leadership is a consequence of being poor and uneducated. The people re-electing the mayor bought the line that the federal government was primarily responsible for the mishandling, and probably made a Bush joke or two... not understanding what role the state and federal governments were supposed to play.
The feds should be thanked for cleaning up the mess Louisiana got itself into.
+5?
Geez. For that matter, as long as we're speculating, it could have made the quake much less intense.
Remember, kids: Just because you've changed something, doesn't mean that you've always made something else worse.
Kid-proof tablet..
That earthquake detector was only for determining the direction of the quake, it could not measure the strength. And has it ever been determine if it even worked properly? I'm sure it was fine at detecting shaking that it had been shaked, but it seems to me that the direction wouldn't be very reliable.
We hope your rules and wisdom choke you / Now we are one in everlasting peace
Dams don't prevent flooding. They just move it somewhere else.
Right, and we know exactly where that somewhere else is (right behind the dam) and we don't build houses there anymore because it's a lake.
Dams prevent catastrophic, uncontrolled flooding by buffering the surge in a lake and letting it out slowly. The Ohio River no longer floods because of the hundreds of artificial lakes created in its watershed, for instance.
Do you have ESP?
Interesting you should mention fossil fuels as there's a strong correlation between earthquakes and oil extraction (and other mining activities)..
Cool! Amazing Toys.