Recent occurrence of major earthquakes share no detectable connection: seismologist

No scientific connection can be drawn between the spate of major earthquakes which have been recently observed around the globe, a seismologist said on Monday, while stressing that experts are still unable to make truly accurate predictions on when and where the next major quake will strike.

Public concerns have been raised in recent times following the occurrence of several large seismic events, with the 7.9-magnitude earthquake which struck Myanmar on Friday, resulting in over 2,700 fatalities and thousands of injuries, being followed by a 7.0-magnitude tremor in Tonga on Sunday.

Earlier this year, southwest China's Xizang Autonomous Region was hit by a 6.8-magnitude quake which left 126 people dead, hundreds of others injured, and caused widespread damage.

Despite fears over the regularity of these disasters happening in relatively quick succession in the Asia-Pacific, Robert J. Geller, a seismologist and professor emeritus at the University of Tokyo, told the China Global Television Network (CGTN) that there is no evidence of any causal relationship between these seismic activities.

"The occurrence of large earthquakes is a kind of matter of probability rather than definite connections. Just like you have aftershocks right near the epicenter, you also have earthquakes that can be triggered at a long distance. So, there is some connection between all of the earthquakes in the Earth's crust. But it's not so simple as to say that earthquake A triggered earthquake B which triggered earthquake C. Any large earthquakes make some instability in the crust on a global scale, and it makes slightly more probability than normal for other large earthquakes," he said.

As it is still not yet possible for the scientific community to make precise forecasts on future earthquakes, Geller stressed the most effective approach to remaining resilient in the face of such natural disasters is through thorough preparation.

"The science of seismology is not able to make reliable and accurate predictions on a time and space scale to be useful to human beings. Maybe in 100 years that will change, although efforts to predict earthquakes reliably and accurately have been going on for more than 100 years with not only no progress, but the more people try it, the more we realize how difficult it is," he said.

"So, the most important thing is to have safe buildings that will withstand shaking. A large earthquake can happen at any time, anywhere, and without any advance warning. So, we have to do the best we can to prepare for earthquake resistance and earthquake resilience in advance," he said.

Recent occurrence of major earthquakes share no detectable connection: seismologist

Southwest China's Yunnan Province has been continuously improving its coffee industry in recent years by focusing on quality control, winning recognition from the global market.

On the production line of a coffee company in Baoshan City, an X-ray machine for selecting ripe coffee beans completes fine screening work at a speed of 12,000 coffee beans per second. Yang Zhu, a manager at the company, said that the improvement in the level of automation ensures that only high-quality coffee is delivered to consumers.

"This is the first X-ray device in China for coffee bean screening. We developed it together with a leading optical enterprise in China. We also developed nitrogen cooling fresh-locking packaging to preserve the freshness of coffee beans. It solves the problem of how to keep our premium coffee beans fresh," Yang said.

Coffee beans from the mountains come to the deep processing factory after simple primary processing by farmers. By using advanced means to process the coffee further, the factory adds significant value to the beans, which will be sold to the expanding coffee-drinking consumer market in the country.

"In recent years, domestic coffee brands have become more and more popular in the market. Our sales in 2019 were only more than 10 million yuan (about 1.3 million U.S. dollars), and by 2020 our sales reached more than 60 million yuan. Last year, our sales reached 268 million yuan. It maintains a good growth every year," Yang said.

In the past, most of the coffee grown in Yunnan was imported, which to some extent restricted the development of the industry. In recent years, agricultural researchers have independently selected and bred five new varieties with completely independent intellectual property rights.

Today, the quality-focused coffee of Yunnan has received positive feedback from the global market. According to data from Kunming Customs, Yunnan coffee exports reached 32,500 tons in 2024, a year-on-year increase of 358 percent. The coffee was mainly sold to 29 countries and regions including Germany, the Netherlands, and the United States.

"This is not the largest export volume in history. At the peak, the annual coffee exports of Yunnan reached more than 50,000 tons. At present, we are focusing on high-quality products. Some of them were even made by agricultural orders, as domestic merchants made orders while the coffee beans were still on the trees," said Li Xiaobo, chairman of the Yunnan Coffee Industry Association.

Yunnan coffee industry accelerates improvements in bean processing