Engineers Say ‘Unlikely’ That Reservoir Triggered China Shock
Responding to nearly a year’s worth of media speculation that the May 12, 2008, earthquake in China’s Sichuan province might have been triggered by the weight of a recently impounded reservoir, an international team of dam experts has returned from China reporting that such an hypothesis “is very unlikely.”
The magnitude 7.9 Wenchuan earthquake devastated vast areas of the province located in the foothills east of the Tibetan Plateau and killed an estimated 70,000 people. The epicenter was 17 kilometers from concrete-faced rockfill Zipingpu Dam. The dam is 156 meters high and 638 m long and was completed in 2006. It was severely damaged by the temblor.