Nanjing

Earthquakes near Nanjing through history

USGS recorded no earthquake of magnitude 6 or more within 100 km of Nanjing from 1900 to October 19, 2026. NOAA’s list of significant earthquakes has 7 within 100 km of Nanjing, back to AD 499.

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The last 30 days · as of

USGS recorded no earthquake of magnitude 4.5 or more within 100 km of Nanjing in the last 30 days.

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What the record holds

None reached magnitude 7: the strongest was a magnitude 5.5, three times, most recently on April 22, 1974 (Jiangsu Province). The deadliest was not the strongest: an earthquake in December 1037 (Jiangsu Province: Taichou), for which NOAA records 22,391 deaths. NOAA records deaths in 3 of the events here, 22,448 in all. The latest on NOAA’s list is a magnitude 5.4 on July 9, 1979 (Jiangsu Province: Liyang). NOAA’s record here begins on August 4, 499 with an earthquake (Jiangsu Province). NOAA lists one tsunami that began within 100 km of Nanjing.

The events

  • July 9, 1979Earthquake · M 5.4Jiangsu Province: Liyang · 41 deaths (NOAA)NOAA NCEI
  • April 22, 1974Earthquake · M 5.5Jiangsu ProvinceNOAA NCEI
  • January 3, 1930Earthquake · M 5.5Jiangsu ProvinceNOAA NCEI
  • January 3, 1930TsunamiJiangsu ProvinceNOAA NCEI
  • October 30, 1868Earthquake · M 5.5 (est.)Anhui ProvinceNOAA NCEI
  • December 1037EarthquakeJiangsu Province: Taichou · 22,391 deaths (NOAA)NOAA NCEI
  • August 4, 499EarthquakeJiangsu ProvinceNOAA NCEI

Good to know

  • An event counts for Nanjing 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

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