Magnitude 6.6 earthquake hits northwest China’s Qinghai province, USGS says

Magnitude 6.6 earthquake hits northwest China’s Qinghai province, USGS says

(AFP)

A 6.6 magnitude earthquake struck Qinghai, a vast sparsely populated province in northwestern China, early Saturday, the United States Institute for Geological Studies (USGS) said.

The epicenter of the earthquake, which struck at 1:45 a.m. Saturday morning (5:45 p.m. GMT Friday) at a shallow depth of ten kilometers, was located about 140 kilometers northwest of the provincial capital, Xining, according to the USGS.

A 5.1 magnitude aftershock followed 25 minutes later, still according to the SKU

This Chinese province with many mountain ranges, little urbanized and including vast meadows, is located on the Tibetan plateau.

In 2010, a magnitude 6.9 earthquake in Qinghai left 3,000 dead or missing.