On January 18th at 23:36 Beijing time, a 4.6-magnitude earthquake struck Dingjie County, Shigatse City, Tibet (latitude 28.35 degrees, longitude 87.57 degrees) at a depth of 10 kilometers. Following this, at 00:26 on January 19th, a 4.2-magnitude earthquake occurred in the same location at a depth of 10 kilometers. This news quickly became a hot search topic on Baidu on January 19th.
According to CCTV News on the 18th, the China Earthquake Networks Center officially determined that the 4.6-magnitude earthquake in Dingjie County was an aftershock of the 6.8-magnitude earthquake in Dingri, with the epicenter 20 kilometers away from the main shock epicenter, 163 kilometers from Shigatse City, and 374 kilometers from Lhasa.
Less than an hour later, Dingjie County experienced another 4.2-magnitude earthquake.
As of now, there have been no official reports on casualties from this earthquake.
On January 7th at 9:05, a 6.8-magnitude earthquake hit Dingri County, Shigatse City, with the epicenter 36 kilometers from the county town, 164 kilometers from Shigatse City, and 379 kilometers from Lhasa. This earthquake resulted in at least 126 deaths and 188 injuries.
On January 13th at 20:58, the China Earthquake Networks Center recorded a 5.0-magnitude earthquake in Dingri County, Shigatse City, at a depth of 10 kilometers with the epicenter located at latitude 28.45 degrees and longitude 87.52 degrees.
After the earthquake, five reservoirs nearby developed cracks and other issues. Wang Weiluo, a hydrology expert in Germany, stated to a media outlet that the Chinese Communist Party tightly controls the information regarding Tibet’s earthquakes, disasters caused by earthquakes, and disaster relief efforts. Official reports have now acknowledged that five reservoirs have shown localized cracks, indicating a serious situation that requires measures such as draining the reservoirs.
According to a report by Nandu Net on January 19th, based on the China Earthquake Networks Center’s rapid reporting catalog, there have been a total of 88 earthquakes of magnitude 3 or higher within a radius of 200 kilometers of the epicenter in the past five years. The largest earthquake during this period was the 6.8-magnitude earthquake that occurred on January 7th in Dingri County, Shigatse City, 20 kilometers away from the current epicenter.
Public data shows that Tibet is a seismically active region in China, characterized by frequent and widespread seismic activities. Since 1900, Tibet has experienced a total of 642 earthquakes of magnitude 5.0 or higher, with 503 earthquakes in the 5.0-5.9 range, 130 in the 6.0-6.9 range, 7 in the 7.0-7.9 range, and 2 in the 8.0-8.9 range. The most intense earthquake in China in the 20th century occurred on August 15, 1950, with an 8.6 magnitude in Xizang.