Overview
Magnitude 6.0 and intensity VIII shaking are recorded for the earthquake that struck Huihuipu in Gansu province on 18 April 1785, which killed thirty-six people. The epicentre at 39.9 N, 98.0 E lies along the Qilian Shan, the range of thrust-faulted mountains forming the northeastern rampart of the Tibetan Plateau, which absorbs part of the shortening driven by India's collision with Asia. Gansu's traditional loess and rammed-earth dwellings collapse readily at intensity VIII, which accounts for a fatal outcome at a magnitude that engineered construction would survive. No focal depth was determined, and no injury or property figures were entered.
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Energy Released
1.0 atomic bombs
About This Earthquake
1785 China: Gansu Province: Huihuipu: M6.0 at depth unrecorded. Caused 36 deaths. Along active fault systems of the Eurasian plate interior.
Similar Historical Earthquakes
Frequently Asked Questions
The largest earthquake ever recorded was the 1960 Valdivia earthquake in Chile, at magnitude 9.5. It generated a tsunami that traveled across the Pacific Ocean and caused damage as far away as Hawaii and Japan. The earthquake killed approximately 1,655 people and left 2 million homeless.
The deadliest earthquake in recorded history was the 1556 Shaanxi earthquake in China, estimated at magnitude 8.0-8.3, which killed approximately 830,000 people. Many casualties resulted from the collapse of yaodong (cave dwellings) carved into loess cliffs. The 2010 Haiti earthquake (M7.0, ~316,000 deaths) was the deadliest in modern times.
Pre-instrumental earthquake magnitudes are estimated from written accounts of damage, felt reports, geological evidence such as fault scarps and liquefaction features, and tsunami records. These methods provide approximate magnitudes with typical uncertainties of 0.3-0.5 magnitude units.
QuakeFYI's historical database covers earthquakes from approximately 2150 BC to the present, with over 5,700 significant events. Written records from ancient China, Greece, and the Middle East provide some of the earliest accounts. Instrumental recording began around 1900 with the first standardized seismographs.
An earthquake swarm is a sequence of many earthquakes occurring in a localized area over weeks to months without a clear mainshock. Unlike aftershock sequences where one large event is followed by smaller ones, swarms have no single dominant event. They are often associated with volcanic activity or fluid migration in the crust.