A massive 6.9 magnitude earthquake struck China’s Qinghai province on Wednesday morning (7.49 p.m. EDT). Up to press time over 600 people have been reported killed and over 10,000 injured. However, the death toll is expected to rise as many buildings were reduced to rubble. The quake was followed by a series of strong after-shocks most measuring over 5.0.

This earthquake is another in a series of big earthquakes that have struck several countries around the world since January 12, when Haiti was devastated by a 7.0 quake that killed an estimated 300,000 people, injured thousands and left about 2 million homeless.

Qinghai province is a mountainous, impoverished region of China, with a population of over 100,000. According to reports from the Chinese state-run media, Xinhua news, many victims, including school children were buried under debris and rescuers were trying to free them, some using their bare hands. Like Haiti the comparatively poor province had no large excavation machine.

The earthquake struck at 7.49 a.m. when many citizens were still at home, and schools were about to begin classes.

The Chinese earthquake follows days after a massive 7.2 quake struck Baja, California, close to the border between Mexico and California. Since the Haiti quake, several major quakes have hit Guatemala, The Cayman Islands, Chile, Turkey, the Philippines, Japan, Indonesia, and Taiwan. Other minor quakes have been felt in places like Cuba and Jamaica.

A local TV station in China said the quake, toppled houses, temples, gas stations and electric poles, triggered landslides, damaged roads, cut power supplies and disrupted telecommunications, and a major reservoir was cracked. It was also reported that approximately 85 percent of the homes in Qinghai’s capital city Gyegu, with a population of about 100,000 were destroyed.

In May 2008 a 7.9 earthquake killed some 70,000 people in Sichuan, China.

The frequency of earthquakes this year has led to all manner of reasons, not least has been that by “End-of Day” proponents who believe the frequency is a sign that the end of the world is near - the fulfillment of Biblical prophecy of “earthquakes in diverse places” and a sign of the pending return of the Messiah. However, in a CNN report in March, Dr. Kurt Frankel of the Georgia Institute of Technology said the frequency of the quakes “is merely coincidental.”

Other seismologists believe that while major earthquakes can trigger other related quakes, the incidence of major earthquakes in recent months have been too far apart in location to be triggered by other major quakes. One referred to the frequent quakes as “a natural phenomenon.”

Despite what the professionals say, the frequency and potential devastation of earthquakes are foremost in people’s minds, especially those living on identified faults in the earth, where earthquakes are more likely to occur.