Shanghai seismological experts have dismissed a rumor that has
been spread through online forums that Shanghai was about to be hit
by an earthquake and a tsunami.
"Seismological monitoring has detected nothing unusual in
Shanghai. The so-called predictions were groundless rumors," China
News Service quoted an unnamed Shanghai expert as saying.
The rumor began to circulate online after an earthquake,
measuring 8.3 on the Richter Scale, occurred in the northwestern
Pacific on Saturday.
"The epicenter of Saturday's earthquake was 3,400 kilometers
away from Shanghai. Its effect on Shanghai was next to nothing,"
the expert said.
He also said that, according to statistics from the last 500
years, none of the nine recorded earthquakes and tsunamis on the
Chinese mainland had ever caused great damage to the coastal
regions.
"Shanghai doesn't have the geological features for a large-scale
earthquake or tsunami," he said.
(Xinhua News Agency January 16, 2007)