Nanjing refutes quake rumor, woman arrested

The seismological bureau of Nanjing in Jiangsu province on Monday refuted rumors that a 7- to 8-magnitude earthquake is expected to hit the city on June 13, and urged residents not to believe it and live a normal life, the Yangtze Evening Post reported Tuesday.

According to the rumor, the quake forecast was made by the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration and the United States National Seismographic Network, with the epicenter being right in Nanjing.

A 25-year-old woman, who spread the rumor after reading it on a friend’s QQ zone, a social networking site, was arrested for creating public disturbance.

The rumor also said more than 76 percent of hot springs in the Jiangning district of Nanjing saw their temperature go up and the water turn black, and the underground noise level increased 55 decibel from previous years, all signs that a big quake was coming.

"Human knowledge about earthquakes is still not enough. It is impossible to forecast exactly when and where an earthquake will happen and what the magnitude is," said Zhang Zhenya, deputy head of Jiangsu Provincial Seismological Bureau, adding that earthquake rumors always gave a precise time.

The rumor was said to be just a copy of a recent quake rumor in Shaanxi province. Earthquake rumors are mostly the same and they usually take some natural phenomena as evidence of a potential quake, said an expert from the seismological bureau of Nanjing.

Source: chinadaily.com.cn/agencies