Vietnam: 4 days, 10 earthquakes, fault zones active

"These earthquakes are all located in the fault zones of Son La and Lai Chau - Dien Bien. Over the past 4 days, we have recorded about 10 earthquakes occurring on these two fault zones", Dr. Le Huy Minh said.

On the morning of April 28, another earthquake occurred in Lai Chau. This is the third consecutive strong earthquake on 3.5 Richter scale and one of about 10 earthquakes occurred in Son La and Lai Chau areas in just 4 days.

The Earthquake Alert Center and Tsunami Warning (CBST-CBST) said that the earthquake occurred at 9 hours 1 minute 48 seconds in the morning through April 28, strong 4.1 on the Richter scale. Earthquake center with coordinates 22.18 degrees north latitude; 103.20 degrees east longitude, located on the area of ​​the bed of Nua (H.Sin Ho, Lai Chau). Previously, in Lai Chau province on the 25th and 26th April, two earthquakes appeared continuously with 3.8 and 3.6 Richter scale.

Residents of the new Linh Dam residential area (Hanoi) were bewildered by the earthquake in late March (big picture) and the earthquake epicenter map in Lai Chau on the morning of April 28 (small photo).

Dr. Le Huy Minh, Director of CBST-CBST Center , said this was identified as weak earthquakes, unlikely to cause serious damage to people and property. According to Dr. Minh, it is not possible to confirm whether the earthquake aftershocks will continue to occur and the officials of the center continue to monitor closely the next developments.

' These earthquakes are all located in the Son La and Lai Chau - Dien Bien fault zones. Over the past 4 days, we have recorded about 10 earthquakes occurring on these two fault zones, but in addition to the 3 dynamic earthquakes in Lai Chau, all remaining earthquakes are less than 3.5 Richter so that According to the regulation of reporting earthquakes, we did not issue earthquake newsletters , 'Mr. Minh said.

The fault zone is working actively

The head of the CBST-CBD Center also said that the Son La fault zone could cause a maximum earthquake of up to 7 on the Richter scale and actually happened to have an earthquake of 6.8 on the Richter scale. Meanwhile, the earthquake in Lai Chau - Dien Bien fault zone is 6.1-6.5 Richter.

Mr. Minh noted that the earthquakes occurred in the past days, showing that the two fault zones are active and currently cannot explain the cause. Local people and authorities in this area need to be proactive in preventing the occurrence of larger earthquakes.

According to Mr. Minh, along with the earthquakes in Lai Chau, since the end of 2010, there have been many earthquakes occurred in Cao Bang, Thanh Hoa, Nghe An and Ba Ria - Vung Tau offshore . Compared to the same period In previous years, earthquakes occurred more and the trend increased.

These earthquakes show that the fault zones in our country are active and do not rule out the repeated strong earthquake cycle.

Mr. Minh said, in fact in our country, after about 20-30 years, an earthquake with a magnitude of 6 on the Richter scale appears. If calculated from the magnitude 6.8 magnitude earthquake at Tuan Giao (Dien Bien) in 1983, it has been more than 24 years now. This period coincides with the period mentioned above.