(April 22, 2013) China’s “First Financial Daily” investigates the hazards of reservoir-induced seismicity in the wake of the magnitude-7 Lushan earthquake.

China’s First Financial Daily interviews Chinese geologists, Fan Xiao and Yang Yong, who argue that China’s breakneck dam-building in the seismically active south-west region of China increases the risk of geological disasters. Dam reservoirs can both trigger and be damaged by seismic activity, putting populations at risk. According to Yang Yong, there are more that 100 large and small reservoirs and hydropower stations within a 100km radius of the magnitude-7 earthquake that rocked Lushan County, Sichuan, on Saturday, April 20, 2013.

Read the full story in Chinese here.

For more background to this issue see:

Deadly earthquake in China may be aftershock of 2008 Wenchuan quake

On alert: RIS risk amid rash of earthquakes in China’s Sichuan-Yunnan region

Fan Xiao: Did the Zipingpu Dam Trigger China’s 2008 Earthquake? —The Scientific Case

Feverish Chinese dam building could trigger tsunami

A new threat to safety along the Yangtze River