SHENZHEN is building more earthquake monitoring systems although the chances of a major earthquake in the city are low, an official with the city's disaster-prevention authorities said Monday (Nov 28).

The city, which relies on the provincial and national networks to monitor earthquakes, is building a municipal earthquake monitoring station that can sense an earthquake as small as 1.5 on the Richter scale. The construction of the station will be completed by the end of 2006, said Zhou Congxue, an official with the disaster-prevention bureau. According to Zhou, the bureau's devices recorded slight tremors Saturday.

"The new station will help Shenzheners locate earthquakes quicker and more accurately," said Zhou, adding that the facility could also monitor earthquakes abroad.

Zhou said the probability of an earthquake with an intensity of seven or above is about 10 percent in Shenzhen, where all the constructions built in and after 1990 could withstand an earthquake of intensity seven. Intensity seven is roughly the tremor a magnitude five earthquake can cause at its epicenter.

Shenzheners should be prepared to deal with earthquakes, because there was no way to accurately predict when and where the next earthquake could happen, said Zhou.

The most important thing is to stay calm, said Zhou, adding that a 73-year-old woman was killed by a flying brick while running between two rooms during the recent earthquake in Hubei Province. The earthquake, which occurred in Jiujiang and Ruichang in Jiangxi, Guangdong's neighboring province, killed a total of 13 people Saturday.

Zhou also suggested people squat near a wall or a desk in a small room --- such as a toilet or a kitchen --- if there was a major earthquake. The walls could protect them if the house collapsed, he said.

Shenzhen has not seen any major earthquakes since people started monitoring earthquakes. An earthquake measuring 7.3 on the Richter scale in 1918 in Shantou, a city about 450 kilometers from Shenzhen, which caused slants to fall in Futian District.

In September 1999, the city recorded an earthquake measuring 3.5 on the Richter scale, which caused some tremors and slight panic among citizens.

Greater awareness of earthquakes could greatly reduce casualties, said Zhou. Two earthquakes of the same magnitude could cause hundreds of deaths in a country with a poor disaster prevention system, he said.

Shenzhen set up an emergency scheme to deal with earthquake aftershocks back in 1999.

Editor: Wing