Over 100 dead, thousands injured in China quake(3)

INFRASTRUCTURE DISRUPTED

About 200 technicians from China Mobile Limited's Sichuan branch have been dispatched to disaster-hit areas to repair the telecommunications network.

Infrastructures remain intact in Sichuan but are badly damaged and broken in the epicenter and nearby.

The State Grid Corporation of China said the major lines in the province are operating smoothly, but those in the quake-hit area are severely damaged.

In Lushan county, two transformer substations have halted service, with one of them unable to resume operation. Five hydropower stations in Ya'an are disconnected.

According to the nation's major telecommunications companies, mobile phone services are suspended in the epicenter, with interruptions in the province.

As many as 279 telecommunication base stations have collapsed due to the quake.

Sichuan has rich oil and gas resources, with many pipelines and refineries. Sinopec, Asia's largest refiner, said no damage had been reported at its production facilities in the quake-hit regions.

NOT AN AFTERSHOCK OF WENCHUAN QUAKE

The Ya'an quake has resulted in serious casualties and economic losses, but it is not expected to be as disastrous as the 8.0-magnitude Wenchuan quake, said Pan Huaiwen, director of the China Earthquake Networks Center (CENC).

Possibilities of aftershocks stronger than 7.0-magnitude are small, he said.

But Pan warned of aftershocks and secondary disasters, including landslides, mud-rock flows, and the collapse of caves and riverbanks.

A total of 264 aftershocks had been monitored as of 12 p.m., two of which were above 5.0-magnitude, according to the CENC.

Jiang Haikun, an official with the CENC's forecasting department, said the Ya'an quake resembles that of the Wenchuan disaster, as both earthquakes were formed in a similar way, occurring on the Longmen mountain fault zone.

Earthquakes on this 500-km belt are not frequent, but very powerful. Twelve quakes above 5.0-magnitude have occurred since 1900, including Wenchuan as the most powerful one, Jiang said.

The Ya'an quake was not an aftershock of the Wenchuan earthquake, he said.

A total of 12 earthquakes at 5.0-magnitude or above have occurred in the area within 100 kilometers of its epicenter since 1900, including the devastating Wenchuan quake in 2008.