(October 14, 2006) (Article excerpt) … [Engineering professor Maria Feng and her colleagues at University of California (Irvine)] have developed sensors that monitor stress on everything from bridges and high-rise buildings to dams that are prone to damage from earthquakes. One of the devices is a fiber optic sensor that’s the size of a half dollar.
China to build earthquake warning system at Three Gorges Reservoir area
(August 22, 2006) A network of 21 digital earthquake-monitoring stations is to be set up in the Chongqing section of the Three Gorges reservoir by the end of next year, to ‘prevent damage caused by earthquakes and other disasters.’
Quakes the main natural disaster killer on mainland
(August 6, 2006) Earthquakes have killed more people in China than any other form of natural disaster, accounting for 54 per cent of such deaths since 1949, a Chinese seismological official says.
Quake warnings ignored
(July 28, 2006) Chinese media reports have accused the Yunnan government of failing to alert the public about seismic warnings ahead of a July 22 quake that claimed at least 22 lives.
Three Gorges revisited
(May 3, 2006) Sichuan geologist Fan Xiao travels to the Three Gorges reservoir area, and reports on aspects of the project that continue to trouble Chinese experts.
Landslide hazard monitoring in China with an example from the Baota landslide, three gorges area
(2006) The purposes of landslide monitoring are applied to analysis, forecasting and control of landslide. The indicators in landslide monitoring include the geological indicators, ground displacement indicators, indicators of displacement in borehole, ground water indicators (pore pressure, ground water table, ground water chemistry), induced factor indicators (weather, human activity), geophysical indicators and geochemical indicators. The techniques in landslide monitoring include extensometer of ground fissures, inclinometer in borehole, global position system, remote sensing and integrated real time monitoring system. A case study of Baota landslide in the enclosed landscape of the three gorges projects of Yangtze river is detailed in this paper.
Quake hits central China, 600 km downstream of Three Gorges
(November 26, 2005) The 5.7-magnitude earthquake, the biggest in the region in half a century, does not appear to have affected the Three Gorges project. It does, however, highlight experts’ concerns about building the world’s biggest dam in a geologically fragile area.
Artificial water reservoir-triggered earthquakes with special emphasis at Koyna
(May 25, 2005) Globally, about one hundred sites are known where filling of artificial water reservoirs triggered earthquakes. It is noteworthy that a majority of the sites where triggered earthquakes exceeding magnitude 5 have occurred are in Stable Continental Regions.
Alert system a priority: experts
(January 4, 2005) Mainland environmentalists have launched a petition urging the government to fast-track the establishment of an earthquake warning system in the southwest.
Dam on dangerous ground
(December 18, 2003) Two civil engineering professors at Wuhan University believe that earthquakes in the Three Gorges reservoir area are a real cause for concern, and call for more resources to be put into investigating the region’s seismic problems.
Minor tremors rattle Three Gorges during reservoir filling
(June 26, 2003) ‘The real danger comes from active faults in the vicinity of the dam site,’ which is located near six fault lines, a senior engineer warns in a recent Chinese newspaper report.
Skyscraper that may cause earthquakes
(July 31, 2002) Geologists fear the weight of the world’s tallest building may have transformed a stable area into one susceptible to seismic activity. But compared with dams, they say, buildings such as Taipei 101 are mere pinpricks on the Earth’s surface.
Frequent afterschocks fracture Yangtze River levee
(July 23, 2002) The 385 aftershocks that followed the Nov. 26 Jiangxi earthquake have opened cracks, some about three inches wide, in the Jiujiang embankment, Epoch Times reports.
Dam the consequences
(July 11, 2002) Building yet another dam could threaten an ages-old engineering marvel in Sichuan and a key part of China’s heritage. But the project is going ahead as authorities smother public debate on its impact.
‘Earthquake risk’ from dams
(May 9, 2002) Large dams in mountainous regions could threaten people living near them by stressing the Earth’s crust to danger levels, a scientist says.
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