Reviewed by USGSChina91y ago
M6.2 earthquake 61 km S of Tianshui, China
Saturday, August 1, 1936, 06:24:30 UTC · 34.029°N, 105.736°E
A magnitude 6.2 earthquake struck 61 km S of Tianshui, China on Saturday, August 1, 1936, 06:24:30 UTC, at a depth of 15.0 km (shallow). It is the strongest earthquake within 300 km since an M6.8 on February 7, 1936.
- Magnitude
- 6.2
- Strong · mw
- Depth
- 15 km
- Shallow
- Felt reports
- 0
- Did You Feel It?
- Est. shaking
- —
- No ShakeMap
- PAGER alert
- None
- Not issued
- Tsunami
- No flag
- USGS feed
Outlined circle: this earthquake
In context
How big was it, and why here?
Energy released
26 kilotons of TNT
That is about 2 times the Hiroshima bomb. It released about 55 times the energy of a magnitude 5.0.
Tectonic setting
492 km
from the nearest mapped plate boundary, between the Eurasian and Yangtze plates. Earthquakes this far from a boundary happen on faults inside a plate, often less frequently but sometimes strongly.
Depth: shallow
15 km
Shallow earthquakes (under 70 km) produce the strongest surface shaking for their size, so they are the ones most likely to cause damage near the epicenter.
Did You Feel It?
Where it was felt
No “Did You Feel It?” reports have been published for this event yet. If you felt it, you can add your report on the USGS website.
I felt it — report to USGS ↗USGS PAGER estimate
Who was exposed to shaking
USGS publishes PAGER impact estimates for significant earthquakes, usually within an hour. No PAGER estimate is available for this event.
After the main event
Aftershocks within 100 km
USGS has not published any M2.5+ earthquake within 100 km in the 30 days after this event.
Regional history
Past M5+ earthquakes within 300 km
USGS lists 3 M5.0+ earthquakes within 300 km before this one (catalog from 1900; older records are less complete). The strongest:
History · NOAA
Deadliest earthquakes in this area
NOAA’s significant-earthquake database lists 18 damaging, deadly or tsunami-generating earthquakes within 300 km of this epicenter since 1700, which together caused about 342,642 recorded deaths. The most severe:
- 1920M8.3
Gansu Province, Shanxi Province
16 Dec 1920 · 289 km away · intensity XII
235,502 deaths$25 million damagetsunami
- 1718M7.5
Gansu Province
19 Jun 1718 · 119 km away · intensity X
73,000 deathsExtreme damage ($25M+)
- 1879M8.0
Gansu Province
1 Jul 1879 · 133 km away · intensity XI
22,000 deathsExtreme damage ($25M+)
- 1933M7.4
Sichuan Province
25 Aug 1933 · 300 km away · intensity X
9,300 deathsExtreme damage ($25M+)
- 1765M6.5
Gansu Province: Wushan, Gangu
2 Sep 1765 · 109 km away · intensity IX
2,068 deathsExtreme damage ($25M+)
- 1881M6.5
Gansu Province
20 Jul 1881 · 115 km away · intensity VIII
480 deathsSevere damage ($5–24M)
NOAA NCEI Global Significant Earthquake Database. Historical figures are estimates; older records are incomplete.