The 1604 Quanzhou earthquake was an extremely large

seismic event An earthquakealso called a quake, tremor, or tembloris the shaking of the Earth's surface resulting from a sudden release of energy in the lithosphere that creates seismic waves. Earthquakes can range in intensity, from those so weak they c ...

that occurred in the

Taiwan Strait The Taiwan Strait is a strait separating the island of Taiwan and the Asian continent. The strait is part of the South China Sea and connects to the East China Sea to the north. The narrowest part is wide. Names Former names of the Tai ...

, off the coast of

Fujian Fujian is a provinces of China, province in East China, southeastern China. Fujian is bordered by Zhejiang to the north, Jiangxi to the west, Guangdong to the south, and the Taiwan Strait to the east. Its capital is Fuzhou and its largest prefe ...

Province, near

Quanzhou Quanzhou is a prefecture-level city, prefecture-level port city on the north bank of the Jin River, beside the Taiwan Strait in southern Fujian, China, People's Republic of China. It is Fujian's largest most populous metropolitan region, wi ...

during the

Ming dynasty The Ming dynasty, officially the Great Ming, was an Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 1368 to 1644, following the collapse of the Mongol Empire, Mongol-led Yuan dynasty. The Ming was the last imperial dynasty of ...

. According to modern-day calculations, the earthquake had a

moment magnitude The moment magnitude scale (MMS; denoted explicitly with or Mwg, and generally implied with use of a single M for magnitude) is a measure of an earthquake's magnitude ("size" or strength) based on its seismic moment. was defined in a 1979 paper ...

of 8.1 . It is unknown how many casualties resulted from the quake, but major damage was reported.

Tectonic setting

The coast of

Fujian Province Fujian is a province in southeastern China. Fujian is bordered by Zhejiang to the north, Jiangxi to the west, Guangdong to the south, and the Taiwan Strait to the east. Its capital is Fuzhou and its largest prefecture city by population is Qua ...

, along the Taiwan Strait, is a tectonically stable part of the Eurasian Plate, therefore experience relatively low seismic activity. The area forms part of the

passive margin A passive margin is the transition between Lithosphere#Oceanic lithosphere, oceanic and Lithosphere#Continental lithosphere, continental lithosphere that is not an active plate continental margin, margin. A passive margin forms by sedimentatio ...

between the continental crust of the

South China Craton The South China Craton or South China Block is one of the Precambrian continental blocks in China. It is traditionally divided into the Yangtze Plate, Yangtze Block in the NW and the Cathaysia, Cathaysia Block in the SE. The Jiangshan–Shaoxing ...

and the oceanic crust of the

South China Sea The South China Sea is a marginal sea of the Western Pacific Ocean. It is bounded in the north by South China, in the west by the Indochinese Peninsula, in the east by the islands of Taiwan island, Taiwan and northwestern Philippines (mainly Luz ...

. Within the stable South China Craton, there are three zones of higher earthquake activity, one of which is the Southeast China Coast seismic zone running through Guangdong and

. This zone follows the South China Maritime Fold Belt, which formed during a

subduction Subduction is a geological process in which the oceanic lithosphere and some continental lithosphere is recycled into the Earth's mantle at the convergent boundaries between tectonic plates. Where one tectonic plate converges with a second p ...

event during the

Late Jurassic The Late Jurassic is the third Epoch (geology), epoch of the Jurassic Period, and it spans the geologic time scale, geologic time from 161.5 ± 1.0 to 143.1 ± 0.8 million years ago (Ma), which is preserved in Upper Jurassic stratum, strata.Owen ...

Early Cretaceous The Early Cretaceous (geochronology, geochronological name) or the Lower Cretaceous (chronostratigraphy, chronostratigraphic name) is the earlier or lower of the two major divisions of the Cretaceous. It is usually considered to stretch from 143.1 ...

epochs. The area is currently in a compressive stress regime with the maximum horizontal stress orientated northwest-southeast. This results from a combination of the continuing

collision In physics, a collision is any event in which two or more bodies exert forces on each other in a relatively short time. Although the most common use of the word ''collision'' refers to incidents in which two or more objects collide with great for ...

between the

Indian Indian or Indians may refer to: Associated with India * of or related to India ** Indian people ** Indian diaspora ** Languages of India ** Indian English, a dialect of the English language ** Indian cuisine Associated with indigenous peoples o ...

and Eurasian Plates and the subduction of the

Philippine Sea Plate The Philippine Sea plate or the Philippine plate is a tectonic plate comprising oceanic lithosphere that lies beneath the Philippine Sea, to the east of the Philippines. Most segments of the Philippines, including northern Luzon, are part of ...

Earthquake

The earthquake was associated with the Bingai Fault System of the Southeast China Coast seismic zone. The Binhai Fault System, also known as the Littoral Fault System runs offshore in a north-northeast orientation for a total length of 500 km. Movement along the fault occurs in a right-lateral

strike-slip In geology, a fault is a planar fracture or discontinuity in a volume of rock across which there has been significant displacement as a result of rock-mass movements. Large faults within Earth's crust result from the action of plate tectonic ...

fashion, although there is a small thrust component in it. The fault was the source of large earthquakes in 1185, 1574, 1600, 1906, and most recently the

1918 Shantou earthquake The 1918 Shantou earthquake occurred in Shantou, Guangdong, Republic of China. Serious damage and high casualty numbers were reported in Guangdong and the surrounding provinces. It also caused some damage in British Hong Kong. Earthquake The eve ...

. By modelling the earthquake and comparing the simulated seismic intensities against historical descriptions of the event, the

of the quake is estimated at 8.1 . The model estimates a maximum coseismic slip of 16–20 meters along with the Bingai Fault System. The rupture zone along the fault is estimated to be 250 km by 20 km.

Impact

Two

foreshock A foreshock is an earthquake that occurs before a larger seismic eventthe mainshockand is related to it in both time and space. The designation of an earthquake as ''foreshock'', ''mainshock'' or aftershock is only possible after the full sequenc ...

s occurred on December 22 and 28 in

Anhai Anhai is a town in southern Fujian province or Minnan, People's Republic of China. It is located in the far southern suburbs of the Quanzhou metropolitan area and is separated by Weitou Bay () from Kinmen, which is controlled by the Republic ...

and

Hui'an County () is a county under the jurisdiction of the prefecture-level city of Quanzhou, Fujian, People's Republic of China. It is situated in the middle of the Fujian coast, between Quanzhou and Meizhou Bay. The county has a population of 921,794, as o ...

, respectively. The main shock on 29 December in the evening caused serious damage in the

Minnan region Minnan, Banlam or Minnan Golden Triangle (), refers to the coastal region in South Fujian Province, China, which includes the prefecture-level cities of Xiamen, Quanzhou and Zhangzhou. The region accounts for 40 percent of the GDP of Fujian Pr ...

. At least 22 counties across

Jiangxi ; Gan: ) , translit_lang1_type2 = , translit_lang1_info2 = , translit_lang1_type3 = , translit_lang1_info3 = , image_map = Jiangxi in China (+all claims hatched).svg , mapsize = 275px , map_caption = Location ...

, and

Zhejiang ) , translit_lang1_type2 = , translit_lang1_info2 = ( Hangzhounese) ( Ningbonese) (Wenzhounese) , image_skyline = 玉甑峰全貌 - panoramio.jpg , image_caption = View of the Yandang Mountains , image_map = Zhejiang i ...

suffered extensive destruction. The quake was felt 1,000 km away in Anhui, Jiangsu, Shanghai, Hubei, Hunan, Guangdong, and Guangxi. The maximum intensity near the coast has been evaluated to be IX (''Destructive'') on the

China seismic intensity scale The China seismic intensity scale is a national standard of the People's Republic of China used to measure seismic intensity. Similar to EMS-92 on which CSIS drew reference, seismic impacts are classified into 12 degrees of intensity, or ''liedu' ...

. Intensity VII (''Very strong'') was felt over an area of 20,669 km². In Quanzhou, land slumping occurred, carrying many homes and shops away. Many roads,

defensive wall A defensive wall is a fortification usually used to protect a city, town or other settlement from potential aggressors. The walls can range from simple palisades or earthworks to extensive military fortifications such as curtain walls with t ...

, bridges and temples were destroyed. Liquefaction caused water and sand to erupt from the ground. Two

rafter A rafter is one of a series of sloped structural members such as Beam (structure), steel beams that extend from the ridge or hip to the wall plate, downslope perimeter or eave, and that are designed to support the roof Roof shingle, shingles, ...

s at the east pagoda of the Kaiyuan Temple, and eight at the southeast were destroyed. Severe damage also occurred on the

Luoyang Bridge The Luoyang Bridge, also known as Wan'an Bridge, is located in Quanzhou, Fujian province, China. The stone bay bridge is situated at the mouth of Luoyang River. Being the first stone bay bridge in China, it enjoys the reputation of "one of the fo ...

Sulfur Sulfur ( American spelling and the preferred IUPAC name) or sulphur ( Commonwealth spelling) is a chemical element; it has symbol S and atomic number 16. It is abundant, multivalent and nonmetallic. Under normal conditions, sulfur atoms ...

gases, sand and water was emitted from

Mount Qingyuan Mount Qingyuan () is a mountain and national park protecting it, Fujian Province, located in the East China region of China. Geography The mountain is located about from Quanzhou city. The summit is above sea level. National park Mount Qingyu ...

. At

Putian Putian ( zh, s= , Putian dialect: ''Pó-chéng''), also known as Puyang (莆阳) and Puxian (莆仙), historically known as Hinghwa/Hinghua ( zh, s=兴化, t=興化), is a prefecture-level city in Fujian Province, People's Republic of China. I ...

, sections of the

s toppled. Tall buildings nearly collapsed while shorter homes were heavily damaged. In Yangwei, Xiakedi and Ligang, extensive fissuring occurred, with water and sand erupting. The

battlement A battlement, in defensive architecture, such as that of city walls or castles, comprises a parapet (a defensive low wall between chest-height and head-height), in which gaps or indentations, which are often rectangular, occur at intervals ...

s on the city walls of Nan'an fell. Severe damage was also reported in Haicheng,

Fuzhou Fuzhou is the capital of Fujian, China. The city lies between the Min River (Fujian), Min River estuary to the south and the city of Ningde to the north. Together, Fuzhou and Ningde make up the Eastern Min, Mindong linguistic and cultural regi ...

Pinghe Pinghe County () is a county of the prefecture-level city of Zhangzhou, in southern Fujian province, PRC, bordering Guangdong province to the west. Administrative Division The administrative centre or seat of Pinghe County is Xiaoxi Town, Fujian ...

, Changtai,

Shangyu Shangyu District () is a district of the prefecture-level city of Shaoxing in the northeast of Zhejiang province, China. At the 2010 census, its population in the built-up (''or metro'') area was 779,412, up from 722,523 in the 2000 census. Shang ...

, and

Wenzhou Wenzhou; Chinese postal romanization, historically known as Wenchow is a prefecture-level city in China's Zhejiang province. Wenzhou is located at the extreme southeast of Zhejiang, bordering Lishui, Zhejiang, Lishui to the west, Taizhou, Zheji ...

References

{{Earthquakes in China Earthquakes in Fujian Earthquakes in Taiwan 1604 in Asia 1604 in science Disasters in the Ming dynasty Tsunamis in China 1600s earthquakes History of Quanzhou

Tectonic setting

Earthquake

Impact

See also

References