Historic Earthquakes: Tectonic Summary
Magnitude 6.0 YUNNAN, CHINA
2003 July 21 15:16:31 UTC
The July 21 earthquake occurred as the result of strike-slip faulting. Southwestern China is traversed by several major, seismically active, strike-slip faults, and many destructive earthquakes have occurred on lesser strike-slip faults. The epicenter of the July 21 earthquake is about 100 km north-northeast of the large Red River fault and about 100 km west of the large Anninghe fault. The causative fault of the July 21 earthquake has not yet been identified.
In a broad sense, strike-slip faults and earthquakes in southwestern China result from the eastward motion of the Earth's crust that is driven by the collision of the Indian and Eurasian continental plates beneath the Himalaya Mountains and the Tibetan Plateau farther to the west.
| Date | Magnitude | Fatalities | Injuries | Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2001 10 27 | 5.7 | At least 1 | 220 | 3,400 buildings destroyed in Yongsheng area |
| 2000 08 21 | 4.9 | 1 | 406 | 169,000 homeless, extensive damage in Wuding County |
| 2000 01 14 | 5.4 | 7 | 2,528 | 92,479 homeless, 41,000 houses destroyed in Yunnan Province |
| 1998 11 19 | 5.2 | 5 | 1,543 | 12,000 homes destroyed, 16,000 buildings damaged |
| 1996 02 03 | 6.4 | 322 | 16,925 | 358,000 housing units collapsed, 654,000 more damaged |
| 1995 10 23 | 5.8 | 81 | 800 | 200 houses damaged or destroyed in the Wuding area |
| 1970 01 04 | 7.5 | ~10,000 | Unknown | Roughly $5 to $25 million damage |
| 1925 03 16 | 7.0 | ~5,000 | 7,200 | 76,000 houses collapsed in Dali area |
