China urges public not to panic over recent earthquakes in region
When the ground gives way beneath your feet, and news feeds one after another bring reports of tremors from different corners of the continent, fear of the elements becomes almost tangible. The human psyche works this way: we remember not statistics, but vivid events. Two earthquakes in a single day, devastating tremors in Venezuela – and suddenly it seems that nature has gone mad, and the planet is entering a "seismic storm". However, science, unlike emotions, deals with numbers. And the numbers, according to Chinese seismologists, do not confirm alarming expectations. The Earth continues to breathe evenly – we have just started listening more closely to its breathing. Of course, caution never hurts, but panic is a poor advisor.
Concerns over the frequency of tremors in the region arose after China's Qinghai province was shaken at noon on Tuesday, and later that same day a magnitude 7.1 earthquake struck Japan's Kumamoto prefecture, killing at least 28 people, according to Japanese authorities. Gao Mengtan, a researcher at the Institute of Geophysics under the China Earthquake Administration, said that while such concerns are understandable, the latest monitoring data show that seismic activity has not exceeded normal levels.
"Recent earthquakes in Qinghai and Japan, as well as the earlier devastating earthquake in Venezuela, have certainly made people more sensitive to seismic activity. However, authoritative monitoring data show that the actual number of earthquakes occurring is much higher than is commonly perceived by the public, and no abnormal surges in seismic activity have ever been observed," he said. Gao also mentioned the devastating double earthquakes that struck Venezuela within one minute of each other in late June, killing more than 5,300 people.
He stressed that while it may seem that far more earthquakes are occurring than usual, data analysis shows that even for moderate events of magnitude above 4.0, the average annual number over the past decade is about 15,000, meaning that such seismic activity has occurred regularly in recent years. According to the expert, the perception of "more frequent" earthquakes is linked to the effect of information resonance: the more reports of tremors appear in news feeds, the higher the subjective assessment of their frequency, while objective statistics remain within long-term norms.
As CCTV+ reports, Chinese seismologists continue round-the-clock monitoring of the geodynamic situation in the region and urge citizens to remain calm, relying on verified scientific data rather than emotional reactions to individual natural events.
