One person has been confirmed dead after an earthquake hit Shuangbai County, Yi Autonomous Prefecture, in southwest China's Yunnan Province on Sunday, the local earthquake relief headquarters reported Monday. Seventeen others were injured in the earthquake, which was the worst of some 47 tremors that shook the province in less than 24 hours.

The 5.0-magnitude earthquake hit Malong village at 3:30 Sunday afternoon. The village is home to about 2,000 people and located 100 kilometers from Kunming, the provincial capital.

The epicenter was located at 24.4 degrees north latitude and 101.3 degrees east longitude, according to the Yunnan Provincial Seismological Department.

A milder quake measuring 4.6 on the Richter scale hit Binchuan County, in Bai Autonomous Prefecture near the tourism center of Dali at around 9:00 AM the same day. The two earthquakes were centered about 150 kilometers apart.

They were the strongest of a series of earthquakes that struck 19 different locations in Yunnan between 1:00 AM and 6:00 PM on Sunday. The lighter quakes measured between 1.0 and 5.0 on the Richter scale, and some areas were rattled as many as nine times. The temblors have caused over US$33.8 million in direct economic losses.

Hu Yonglong, deputy director of the Yunnan Provincial Seismological Department, said that the temblors may be related to the killer earthquake in Indonesia, indicating that neighboring areas are also experiencing active geological movements.

More than 23,000 people have so far been confirmed dead from the powerful undersea quake that struck off the coast of northern Sumatra on Sunday morning and the tsunami that followed.

Scientists in other parts of the world are also saying that that huge tectonic slip may be affecting other areas. Enzo Boschi, the head of Italy's National Geophysics Institute, told Italian state radio, "All the planet is vibrating." He and some other scientists believe that the powerful shaking may even have disturbed the Earth's rotation or jarred the planet slightly in its orbit.

Yunnan borders South and Southeast Asia and is frequently plagued by earthquakes. On August 10 this year, a 5.6-magnitude quake struck Ludian County, killing four, injuring hundreds and leaving some 126,000 homeless.

(Xinhua News Agency, China.org.cn December 28, 2004)