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| Rescuers strive to find survivors after Friday's
deadly earthquake in India. |
DENVER
(Reuters) -- Is the earth coming apart at its geological
seams?
With thousands feared dead after a powerful earthquake struck
India on Friday, another that earlier devastated El Salvador,
a tremor off Kyushu Island, Japan, and even a minor quake
in Ohio late on Thursday and a minor quake recently in New
York City, people start wondering.
Relax. "These earthquakes are not related," said Waverly
Person, director of the Earthquake Information Center in
Golden, Colorado, which tracks earthquakes worldwide.
"We locate about 50 quakes every day. But you only hear
about them if people are killed or if they're felt very
strongly in the United States," Person said, rushing from
one media interview to another.
The center was established in Washington in 1966 and has
been working out of Golden since 1973. It tracks earthquakes
worldwide and often provides the first news of a tremor.
Phone banks started lighting up at the center, operated
by the U.S. Geological Service, before dawn on Friday with
news that the worst earthquake in 50 years had hit India.
The tremor has killed more than 1,800 people, and officials
in India said the final toll may be much higher.
The quake was measured at 7.9 on the Richter scale by the
earthquake center.
The most murderous recorded quake in history killed an estimated
830,000 people in Shaanxi, central China, on February 2,
1556.
Events ranking about 4.5 or greater -- of which there may
be several thousand every year -- are strong enough to be
recorded by sensitive instruments all over the world.
Person said there is no reason to believe the quake that
rocked El Salvador on January 13 also triggered events that
led to Friday's earthquake in the Indian sub-continent.
The quakes occurred on separate tectonic plates and a quake
on one does not set up a domino effect in another.
According to records, about 18 major quakes -- measuring
between 7.0 and 7.9 on the Richter scale and one great quake,
measuring 8.0 and above -- can be expected each year. Many
of these, however, may strike uninhabited parts of the world.
But does it make life scarier for people living in quake
zones?
"What it does is bring forth awareness in places like California
and Alaska. It brings it up in their mind," Person said.
"But they're not more afraid."
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