The quake in the mountainous region had flattened homes -- many of which were made with wood and earth -- and other buildings in Jiegu and elsewhere in Yushu prefecture, a Tibetan region of Qinghai.

CNN: STORY HIGHLIGHTS

It takes its name from the four fixed objects - buildings, antennae, spans and earth - which divers use to take off.

BBC: Mother's grief at base jump death of Gary Harbird

Google said it will begin to add 3-D images of buildings to its Google Earth app for mobile devices.

CNN: Google to offer more 3-D, offline maps

Nevada's first platinum-certified LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) buildings stand proudly here, constructed of recycled materials and rammed-earth walls, with passive cooling, renewable heating, reclaimed water and solar-electricity panels, all harvesting clean energy.

BBC: Discover life in the Nevada desert

Edwin Lau, director of Friends of the Earth in Hong Kong, said the move to clean up Hong Kong's energy-hungry buildings was long overdue.

CNN: Can Hong Kong build bigger, higher, greener?

One is Kamen Bryag (Stone Beach), a cluster of terracotta buildings - many with rooms for rent - that seem to sit on the edge of the Earth.

BBC: The Black Sea by Moskvitch