This study analyzes the exposure of energy and transport assets in Asia and the Pacific to climate change and earthquake hazards and highlights how multi-hazard assessment can help strengthen the resilience
In the complex backdrop of India's flourishing trade relations with China and its significant contributions to earthquake aid for the country
A strong earthquake rocked Iceland on Thursday, damaging roads and buildings in one town and sending frightened residents running into the streets. Police in Selfoss, 31 miles (50 km) southeast of the capital Reykjavik, said they had received no reports of injuries and that damage to buildings in the area had been relatively minor. The US Geological Survey said the quake struck at 3:46 p.m. (1546 GMT), 6.2 miles (10 km) beneath the earth's surface. In Selfoss, a small southwestern town near the quake's epicentre, dozens of panicking people poured into the streets.
The collapse of the world's fastest-growing mud volcano could redirect nearby rivers and threaten villages in Indonesia, researchers said on Wednesday. The central part of the volcano on the island of Java is collapsing at a rate of up to three metres a day sporadically, they reported in the journal Environmental Geology. "Sidoarjo is a populated region and is collapsing as a result of the birth and growth of Lusi," Richard Davies, a geologist at Britain's University of Durham.
Mianzhu: Chinese soldiers were working non-stop to dig a giant sluice to ease pressure on a swelling "quake lake', with plans to evacuate 100,000 people to avert a new disaster, state media said. China on Tuesday put the death toll from the earthquake that struck Sichuan province on May 12 at 67,183, with the figure certain to rise with 20,790 listed as missing. Nearly 362,000 people were injured.
Chinese soldiers prepared on Monday to explode earthquake debris blocking a river where quickly rising waters threatened to flood disaster victims. Two weeks after the magnitude 7.9 earthquake hit central Sichuan province, lakes formed by obstructed rivers clogged by landslides were adding new complications to recovery efforts already strained to find shelter for millions of homeless.
China has recaptured a giant panda that made a bid for freedom after a massive earthquake devastated the research base where it lived, the official Xinhua agency said on Monday. The panda, named Xi Xi, was spotted on Sunday by a river not far from the Wolong research centre, but had disappeared into the woods by the time staff had got across. It did not get very far in its escape effort however, as they captured it on Monday just 200 metres (yards) downstream from its home.
CHINA will dynamite rock, mud and rubble forming a dangerously large "quake lake", hoping to avert a new disaster two weeks after a catastrophic tremor struck Sichuan province. The official death toll from the May 12 earthquake is now more than 60,000, but that number is certain to grow as searchers account for more of the 30,000 missing. Premier Wen Jiabao believes the toll could exceed 80,000. The frenzied initial rescue response is cooling into a battle with nature, deprivation and discontent sure to last long after thousands of aftershocks.
With several irrigation projects in the state falling in the moderate seismic zone, the state government will conduct tests to ascertain their structural safety. The Chief Minister, Dr Y.S. Rajasekhar Reddy, has already taken a decision on the issue, following the recent earthquake in China, which the scientists attributed to the Three Gorges project.
One of the most powerful aftershocks to hit quake-ravaged central China killed one person, left dozens more injured and levelled homes yesterday, as soldiers carrying explosives hiked to a blocked-off river to alleviate the threat of floods. Some 260 people were injured in the aftershock Sunday afternoon, the government-run China News Service said, with 24 in serious condition. The agency said many homes had collapsed and roads were damaged, but gave no specific figures.
Well before this city was destroyed by an earthquake 32 years ago, the coming disaster was loudly preceded by strange animal behaviour and other bizarre signals that survivors wish they heeded. "The animals were trying to tell us something. If only we knew that, not so many people would have died," said Fu Wenran, a retired farmer, whose wife was among the estimated 240,000 who perished in Tangshan's quake on July 28, 1976 in China.
