Trading one earthquake zone for another

The, admittedly very large, region of Xianjiang in western China where will be spending the better part of three weeks from this coming Monday (20th August) was hit by a 5.3 earthquake on Saturday, followed by a 6.3 magnitude earthquake on Sunday - so it looks like we'll be trading one earthquake zone for another.

According to Yahoo! News a 6.3-magnitude earthquake shook a remote area of Xinjiang in western China on Sunday. It was at a depth of nine kilometres and about 280 kilometres east of Hotan - relatively near the border with Tibet, based on USGS data. However China Earthquake Networks Centre measured it at 6.2 and put it at 30 kilometres deep.

Saturday's 5.3-magnitde earthquake was at about 188 km from the town of Shache, according to the USGS. The view on QuakeSpotter puts it pretty close to Kashgar.

QuakeSpotter view of earthquakes in the region.

This has prompted me to look up earthquakes in the region over the past week. There have been 8 earthquakes in the region, 11 if you include nearby regions - with three of magnitude 5 or greater.

Or with another map view...

Oh well - what's a holiday without a sense of adventure? Besides this is far more captivating than packing...