The “seismic event” that Chinese scientists detected close to where the missing Malaysia Airlines jet lost contact and said were consistent with a plane crash are “regularly occurring,” U.S. scientists said Friday.
U.S. Geological Survey analysts “have a different conclusion” than the University of Science and Technology of China, which said Friday morning: “It was a non-seismic zone, therefore judging from the time and location of the event, it might be related to the missing MH370 flight."
“The location coincides with a region of regularly occurring seismicity along the Sunda-Java trench,” according to a report by the USGS.
The waveforms were consistent with a 2.7 magnitude earthquake, according to the report.
USGS analysts said that the area where the activity was detected “has been the source of a handful of great earthquakes in the past decade.”
The location — southwest of Sumatra — is also prone to volcanoes, according to the report.
Flight MH370 ceased communications with air traffic control on Saturday and 13 countries are involved in the search effort.
