Earthquakes near Weinan through history

One stands far above the rest: an estimated magnitude 8 on January 23, 1556 (Shaanxi Province). The next strongest reached 7. It was also the deadliest: NOAA records 830,000 deaths for it. NOAA records deaths in 7 of the events here, 832,723 in all. The latest on NOAA’s list is an estimated magnitude 5 on November 7, 1789 (Shaanxi Province: Tongguan). NOAA’s record here begins on December 13, 600 with an earthquake (Shaanxi Province).

• November 7, 1789Earthquake · M 5.0 (est.)Shaanxi Province: TongguanNOAA NCEI
• January 23, 1556Earthquake · M 8.0 (est.)Shaanxi Province · 830,000 deaths (NOAA)NOAA NCEI
• January 19, 1501Earthquake · M 7.0 (est.)Shaanxi Province: Chaoyi · 400 deaths (NOAA)NOAA NCEI
• December 13, 600EarthquakeShaanxi Province · 101 deaths (NOAA)NOAA NCEI

• An event counts for Weinan 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