Qinghai-Tibet railway reduces possible earthquake impact to lowest

After years of study and exploration, earthquake prevention and resistance workers of the Qinghai-Tibet railway has proved to the state that the route choosing and engineering measures of the railway is proper to reduce the risk of earthquakes to the lowest.

The Qinghai-Tibet Plateau is the region of strongest crustal movement on the Chinese mainland, and the railway runs through the most sophisticated earthquake belt in the world, with more than 100 fault zones alongside.

Since the 1990s, the state organized geological surveys in the region and studied the feasibility of constructing the Qinghai-Tibet railway. On November 14, 2001, an earthquake measuring 8.1 on the Richter scale occurred at the southern foot of the Kunlun Mountain, resulting in a 400-km crack on the surface of the earth, the widest site being 100 meters. The earthquake provided precious data for the earthquake prevention and resistance of the railway. Finally earthquake researchers produced five reports, respectively on the identification of active fault zones and division of earthquake zones of key regions along the railway, the security evaluation of channel construction sites of Kunlun Mountain, Fenghuo Mountain and Yangbajing, the security evaluation of four bridge construction sites located in degree 9 earthquake zone; the overall appraisal of the impact of the above-mentioned earthquake on the railway and fault zone examination along the section of Kunlun Mountain mouth-Sangxiong, Yangbajing-Lhasa.

These reports later played a key role in the prospecting work before the railway construction kicked off. The reports have been confirmed by a national panel of earthquake experts as rational, who said designs and routs based them are practical and have reduced the possible impact of earthquakes to the lowest.

By People's Daily Online