[HAL9000]

Urgent: Earthquake Jolts Northeast China

BEIJING, Jun 29, 2002 (Xinhua via COMTEX) -- An earthquake measuring 7.2 on the Richter scale jolted Wangqing County, in northeast China's Jilin Province, at 43.5 degrees north latitude and 130.6 degrees east longitude, at 01:19 (Beijing Time) Saturday, according to the China Seismological Bureau.

The quake was felt in most regions of the provinces of Jilin, Heilongjiang, Liaoning, eastern Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, northern Hebei Province and part of Beijing, and Shandong and Henan provinces, the bureau said.

No casualties or damages have been reported yet, according to the bureau.

Copyright 2002 XINHUA NEWS AGENCY.

[mdittmar]

That's a biggie.

[mdittmar]

"For example, a magnitude 5.3 might be computed for a moderate earthquake, and a strong earthquake might be rated as magnitude 6.3. Because of the logarithmic basis of the scale, each whole number increase in magnitude represents a tenfold increase in measured amplitude; as an estimate of energy, each whole number step in the magnitude scale corresponds to the release of about 31 times more energy than the amount associated with the preceding whole number value.

[RoseofTexas]

HOLY SHAKE AND BAKE, that's a monster quake!!