China earthquake survey doubles Beijing’s high-risk fault lines
- Study uses new technique to identify ‘strongly active’ faults, beneath some of the city’s fastest developing areas
- Chinese capital has a long history of earthquakes but its oldest structures, including the Forbidden City, were found to be at low risk of activity
Beijing has 15 major active fault lines, more than double the previous count, according to a new geological survey commissioned by the government. A third were “strongly active”, suggesting a high earthquake risk, but when the next big jolt may hit remains uncertain.
“The formation and development of most geological hazards in the Beijing plain are closely related to the activity of fault structures,” the researchers said in a paper published this month by the Chinese Journal of Geophysics.
One fracture, dubbed F1-1, was identified beneath the city’s northeastern Huairou district where some of the country’s most expensive research facilities are under construction, including the world’s most powerful wind tunnel for hypersonic weapon development.
Also under threat, according to the study, is the thriving information technology zone in Changping, Daxing’s hi-tech industry zone, and the upper-class residential area in Shunyi district.
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Beijing’s old town, including the Forbidden City and Temple of Heaven, were also built on or near fault lines, but these fractures were generally very old, with some having been quiet since the extinction of the dinosaurs.
The researchers found relatively low stress building up on these old fault lines, which they believed were no longer active.
