The 1605 Qiongshan earthquake () occurred on 13 July (33rd year of reign of Emperor Wanli, May 28th in the Chinese lunar calendar) that struck

Hainan Hainan is an island provinces of China, province and the southernmost province of China. It consists of the eponymous Hainan Island and various smaller islands in the South China Sea under the province's administration. The name literally mean ...

and the adjacent

Guangdong ) means "wide" or "vast", and has been associated with the region since the creation of Guang Prefecture in AD 226. The name "''Guang''" ultimately came from Guangxin ( zh, labels=no, first=t, t= , s=广信), an outpost established in Han dynasty ...

province in China with an estimated magnitude of 7.5 with a maximum felt intensity of X (''Extreme'') on the

Modified Mercalli intensity scale The Modified Mercalli intensity scale (MM, MMI, or MCS) measures the effects of an earthquake at a given location. This is in contrast with the seismic magnitude usually reported for an earthquake. Magnitude scales measure the inherent force or ...

. It caused widespread damage, including the

subsidence Subsidence is a general term for downward vertical movement of the Earth's surface, which can be caused by both natural processes and human activities. Subsidence involves little or no horizontal movement, which distinguishes it from slope mov ...

of large areas of farmland, swamping many villages and several thousand people were killed. According to the Chinese records about the event, in the reign of the Wanli Emperor, "there was a thunderous sound, the public office collapsed and the houses collapsed, and thousands of the dead were crushed in the county" and "the corpse is covered in pillows, bloody, touches the heart, and spit in the sky.From 萬曆瓊州府志,book 12,書目文獻出版社, 1990, "三十三年五月二十八日亥時地大震。自東北起聲如雷，公署民房崩倒殆盡，郡城中壓死者幾千"；"亥時忽然震動，初如奔車之輾，繼如風揶之顛。”"屍骸枕藉，腥血薰沾，觸目摧心，慟天流涕。”

References

{{Earthquakes in China Earthquakes in Guangdong Disasters in Hainan 1600s earthquakes 1605 disasters