China wants to develop its earthquake forecasting technology to become one of the most advanced countries in this field, Chinese scientists said on Sunday.
Zheng Guoguang, head of the China Earthquake Administration, has explained that the country will speed up development of its earthquake technology to make it competitive with that of developed countries by 2020, and to develop global top-notch detecting technology by 2030, the Science and Technology Daily reported on Sunday.
The report quoted Zheng as saying that the Chinese government saw great progress in earthquake preparation and disaster relief in the past five years, and the current technology is capable of detecting an earthquake above 2.5-magnitude, and reporting it within two minutes.
However, the report also pointed out that disaster relief work is more crucial because of growing population density and the construction of more reservoirs and nuclear power stations.
But, China does not lag behind some developed countries very much, since no one can really do an earthquake forecast with zero-error, Sun Shihong, a China Earthquake Networks Center (CENC) researcher told the Global Times on Sunday. And, seismic resistance materials, such as a shock-absorption devices is already wide used in China, according to the report.
China has given priority to earthquake-forecasting technology, a challenge that requires solid understanding of complicated subterranean activity, said Sun, adding that China also wants to focus on disaster prevention, for example, with earthquake resistant buildings.
China's earthquake administrators have said China plans to launch a satellite that can be used for real-time monitoring of earthquakes and possible seismic precursors in China and neighboring regions, through data on the Earth's electromagnetic field and high-energy particle study, said the Xinhua News Agency on January 17.
In 2016, China announced a new seismic parameter map to help build safer structures with national standards, said Xinhua, adding that it includes national standards for construction and anti-seismic design. All buildings and infrastructure must meet basic criteria and requirements as outlined by the country.
China's size has it straddling one of the most active seismic zones in the world. Since 1900, it has had a 7.5-magnitude earthquake or above every five years on average on the mainland, and every decade has seen one tremor measuring at least magnitude 8.0.
