Earthquakes in China, 2017–2026
From 2017 to October 19, 2026, USGS recorded 1,346 earthquakes of magnitude 4.5 or more in or off China. 3 of them reached magnitude 7 or more; the strongest was a magnitude 7.3 on May 21, 2021 (Southern Qinghai, China).
The last 30 days · as of
USGS recorded 47 earthquakes of magnitude 4.5 or more in the area the map frames in the last 30 days.
The latest: magnitude 4.5 on October 23 (18 km NNW of Yongning, China). The strongest: magnitude 7 on October 22 (191 km ENE of Nagqu, China).
What the record holds
The deadliest was not the strongest: a magnitude 5.9 on December 18, 2023 (38 km WNW of Linxia Chengguanzhen, China), for which NOAA records 151 deaths. 38 earthquakes here in these years are on NOAA’s list of significant earthquakes. NOAA records deaths in 18 of the events here, 500 in all. The latest on NOAA’s list is a magnitude 5 on May 17, 2026 (20 km NW of Liuzhou, China). NOAA lists one tsunami that began in or off China.
The events
- May 17, 2026Earthquake · M 5.020 km NW of Liuzhou, China · 2 deaths (NOAA)USGS · NOAA NCEI
- January 7, 2025Earthquake · M 7.12025 Southern Tibetan Plateau Earthquake · 134 deaths (NOAA)USGS · NOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
- January 22, 2024Earthquake · M 7.0128 km WNW of Aykol, China · 3 deaths (NOAA)USGS · NOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
- December 18, 2023Earthquake · M 5.938 km WNW of Linxia Chengguanzhen, China · 151 deaths (NOAA)USGS · NOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
- September 5, 2022Earthquake · M 6.644 km SE of Kangding, China · 118 deaths (NOAA)USGS · NOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
- January 7, 2022Earthquake · M 6.6northern Qinghai, ChinaUSGS · NOAA NCEI
- May 21, 2021Earthquake · M 7.3Southern Qinghai, China · 20 deaths (NOAA)USGS · NOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
- October 10, 2018TsunamiBaige (Jinsha River)NOAA NCEI
Good to know
- An event counts for China when it began inside its borders, or at sea within 100 km of its coast (so one can count for two neighbours), or further out, up to 300 km, where China is the nearest country.
- USGS counts are its ComCat catalogue’s earthquakes of magnitude 4.5 or more, aftershocks included.
- 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.
- The map frames the box around China, its neighbours’ quakes included, so its count runs higher than this page’s.
- 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