Earthquakes near Liupanshui through history

The strongest was an estimated magnitude 7.5 on August 2, 1733 (Yunnan Province: Dongchuan). The deadliest was not the strongest: a magnitude 7 on July 30, 1917 (42 km W of Xunchang, China), for which NOAA records 1,800 deaths. The latest on NOAA’s list is a magnitude 4.5 on December 1, 1998 (Yunnan Province Southeastern). NOAA’s record here begins in 1551 with an earthquake (Guizhou Province: Qinglong).

• December 1, 1998Earthquake · M 4.5Yunnan Province SoutheasternNOAA NCEI
• July 30, 1917Earthquake · M 7.042 km W of Xunchang, China · 1,800 deaths (NOAA)USGS · NOAA NCEI
• August 2, 1733Earthquake · M 7.5 (est.)Yunnan Province: DongchuanNOAA NCEI
• 1551Earthquake · M 5.0 (est.)Guizhou Province: QinglongNOAA NCEI

• An event counts for Liupanshui 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