The Qingzang Tibet Railway earthquake prediction system failed?
I am mulling over a problem for the last of week when hearing about the China Sichuan Province earthquake. China has just completed the most ambitious railway line in the world going from Golmund Xining Province to Tibet Lhasa. Ambitious railway because it is the highest running railway in the world and needs pressurized cabins so you donīt get altitutude sickness to badly (when going by bus from Goldmund its very certain that you get altitude sickness and this route is not recommended to go into Tibet for first time visitors who have never experienced altitude sickness).
From wikipedia:
The line includes the Tanggula Pass, at 5,072 m (16,640 feet) above sea level the world's highest rail track. The 1,338 m Fenghuoshan tunnel is the highest rail tunnel in the world, at 4,905 m above sea level. The 3,345-m Yangbajing tunnel is the longest tunnel on the line. It is 4,264 m above sea level, 80 kilometres north-west of Lhasa.
More than 960 km, or over 80% of the Golmud-Lhasa section, is at an altitude of more than 4,000 m. There are 675 bridges, totalling 159.88 km, and over half the length of the railway is laid on permafrost.
Now when I first read about this railroad line I also read about an earthquake prediction system build into it (and reading above paragraph you know why that is needed). Now Xining province is the neighbor province of Sichuan. The railroad actually uses the the "fault line" mountains to climb to Lhasa. It seems the earthquake prediction system for that railroad has utterly failed to predict the biggest earthquake China has seen for the last 50 years. Makes you feel all better riding on that train. I also have not heard any reports if that trainline is still functioning - because when I was in Tibet I heard that the Swiss engineers have turned down the offer to build the train because they said that even small tectonic shifts would be disastrous. There are no reports anywhere that I could find - either about the failed brand new hightech earthquake prediction system for the railway nor for the fate of the railway itself - I would really like to know.
More on the earthquake prediction system here