Sept. 5 (UPI) — A strong 6.6-magnitude earthquake hit southwestern China’s Sichuan Province on Monday, the U.S. Geological Survey said.
The temblor hit at a depth of 6.2 miles about 27 miles southeast of Kangding city at about 12:52 p.m., it said.
Meanwhile, China’s earthquake networks center has gauged the shock to have been a 6.8 magnitude strike that was felt 140 miles away in Sichuan’s capital of Chengdu, state-run Xinhua news reported.
The USGS said the earthquake was the result of shallow strike-slip faulting on the western margin of the Sichuan basin.
Earthquakes in the region are common, it said, with 25 other temblors with a magnitude of 5 or stronger hitting the area in the past two decades.
The natural phenomenon occurred Monday after a 7.9-magnitude earthquake hit on May, 12, 2008, killing more than 69,000 people. On April 20, 2013, a 6.6-magnitude earthquake resulted in the deaths of 196 people, the USGS said.
