BEIJING, Dec. 27 (Xinhuanet) -- The catastrophic earthquakes and tsunamis in Southeast Asia will not impact China, said an officialwith the Chinese State Seismological Bureau (CSSB) at a news briefing here Monday.

    A devastating quake measuring 8.7 on the Richter scale by CSSB rocked many parts of the provinces of North Sumatra and Aceh in Indonesia at 8:58 a.m. Sunday (Beijing Time).

    The tremor triggered tsunamis, which hit Sri Lanka, India and Thailand, leaving at least 15,000 dead.

    Despite extraordinarily high casualties in the Southeast Asian and South Asian countries, the catastrophe will not affect China, said Zhang Xiaodong, deputy director of China Seismological Network Center.

    Tsunamis are often caused by underwater quakes. The waves usually measure hundreds of kilometers in length and are extremely destructive, as they are able to travel thousands of miles across oceans.

    Many Pacific rim quakes have triggered tsunamis, Zhang said. The most disastrous one came from an earthquake off the coast of Chile in 1960, which even affected Japan.

    China was rarely been hit by tsunamis, noted the official, adding that the country will not be affected either this time.

    On the same day as the Indonesia quake, a tremor measuring 5.0 on the Richter scale jolted Shuangbai County of the southwestern China's Yunnan Province. "No evidence has been found to suggest the two quakes are related, said the official.

Enditem