Reviewed by USGSChina106y ago
M6.2 earthquake 75 km WNW of Xining, China
Tuesday, April 12, 1921, 09:36:04 UTC · 36.826°N, 100.953°E
A magnitude 6.2 earthquake struck 75 km WNW of Xining, China on Tuesday, April 12, 1921, 09:36:04 UTC, at a depth of 15.0 km (shallow). No earthquake of this size or larger appears within 300 km in the USGS catalog since 1900.
- 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
31 kilotons of TNT
That is about 2 times the Hiroshima bomb. It released about 65 times the energy of a magnitude 5.0.
Tectonic setting
938 km
from the nearest mapped plate boundary, between the Amur and Eurasian 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 no earlier M5.0+ earthquakes within 300 km.
History · NOAA
Deadliest earthquakes in this area
NOAA’s significant-earthquake database lists 5 damaging, deadly or tsunami-generating earthquakes within 300 km of this epicenter since 1700, which together caused about 10,126 recorded deaths. The most severe:
- 1921M6.2
Ningxia
12 Apr 1921 · 0 km away
10,000 deathsExtreme damage ($25M+)
- 1819M5.8
Qinghai Province
24 Feb 1819 · 145 km away · intensity VII
126 deathsModerate damage ($1–5M)
- 1888
Gansu Province
2 Nov 1888 · 290 km away · intensity VIII
Severe damage ($5–24M)
- 1893M5.5
Qinghai Province
1 Jun 1893 · 80 km away · intensity VII
Moderate damage ($1–5M)
- 1888M5.0
Qinghai Province
11 Mar 1888 · 117 km away · intensity VI
Limited damage (under $1M)
NOAA NCEI Global Significant Earthquake Database. Historical figures are estimates; older records are incomplete.