Earthquakes near Lhasa through history

The deadliest was not the strongest: a magnitude 7 on December 3, 1915 (Tibet (Xizang Province)), for which NOAA records 170 deaths. NOAA’s list of significant earthquakes has 5 here, back to 1806. NOAA records deaths in 4 of the events here, 333 in all. The latest on NOAA’s list is a magnitude 6.3 on October 6, 2008 (39 km WSW of Dêqên, China). NOAA’s record here begins on June 11, 1806 with an earthquake (Tibet (Xizang Province): Shannan (Lhoka)). 2 of the 5 significant earthquakes NOAA lists here came before 1927.

• October 6, 2008Earthquake · M 6.339 km WSW of Dêqên, China · 9 deaths (NOAA)USGS · NOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
• November 18, 1951Earthquake · M 7.789 km WSW of Nagqu, ChinaUSGS · NOAA NCEI
• December 3, 1915Earthquake · M 7.0Tibet (Xizang Province) · 170 deaths (NOAA)NOAA NCEI
• June 11, 1806Earthquake · M 7.7 (est.)Tibet (Xizang Province): Shannan (Lhoka) · 100 deaths (NOAA)NOAA NCEI

• An event counts for Lhasa when it began within 100 km of its centre, or 200 km for an earthquake of magnitude 7 or more. Damage can reach further.
• USGS counts here start at magnitude 6: the catalogue’s smaller quakes thin out going back, where few instruments listened.
• NOAA lists significant events only: earthquakes that killed, did about $1 million of damage, reached magnitude 7.5 or intensity X, or raised a tsunami, and eruptions and tsunamis by like measures. Magnitudes before 1900 are its estimates from written accounts.
• Deaths are NOAA’s total for each event, wherever people died, its tsunami and fires included. A tsunami counts the dead its runup records give for this place: NOAA’s total for a tsunami includes its source quake’s.
• A tsunami from elsewhere counts where one of its runups killed or rose a metre or more.
• Counted to October 19, 2026, as is the map. The last 30 days ask USGS again.

How the layers work, where their data comes from and what they can’t tell you: Earthquakes, live, The world through history