China quake rare and unexpected, new study says

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The mountains near the Min River south of Wenchuan City close to the epicenter of the recent earthquake in China that has killed more than 65000 people to date. Photo Kristen Cook MIT
The mountains near the Min River south of Wenchuan City, close to the epicenter of the recent earthquake in China that has killed more than 65,000 people to date. Photo / Kristen Cook, MIT

A new analysis of the setting for last month's devastating earthquake in China by a team of geoscientists at MIT shows that the quake resulted from faults with little seismic activity, and that similar events in that area occur only once in every 2,000 to 10,000 years, on average.


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