In the 24 hours ending Saturday noon, 215 aftershocks were monitored in southwest China's quake zone, Xinhua quoted the China Seismological Bureau as saying. No aftershocks above 4.0 on the Richter scale were detected and all the 215 aftershocks were measured below 3.9, the office said, adding that 9,519 aftershocks had been monitored since May 12 when the major quake struck. The strongest aftershock, with a magnitude of 6.4, hit Qingchuan County in southwest China's Sichuan Province at 4:21 p.m. on May 25. China Seismological Bureau has set up observation stations to continuously monitor diastrophism (deformations in the Earth's crust) and gravitational anomalies within the quake zone.
