The 1925 Dali earthquake occurred at 14:42
UTC on 16 March. It had an estimated magnitude of 7.0 on the
surface-wave magnitude scale and a maximum perceived intensity of at least IX (''Violent'') on the
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 had an
epicenter
The epicenter (), epicentre, or epicentrum in seismology is the point on the Earth's surface directly above a hypocenter or focus, the point where an earthquake or an underground explosion originates.
Determination
The primary purpose of a ...
in the province of
Yunnan
Yunnan; is an inland Provinces of China, province in Southwestern China. The province spans approximately and has a population of 47.2 million (as of 2020). The capital of the province is Kunming. The province borders the Chinese provinces ...
in southern China and killed an estimated 5,000 people.
Tectonic setting
Yunnan lies in a tectonically complex zone affected by the broad zone of deformation associated with the ongoing
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 plate
The Indian plate (or India plate) is or was a minor tectonic plate straddling the equator in the Eastern Hemisphere. Originally a part of the ancient continent of Gondwana, the Indian plate broke away from the other fragments of Gondwana an ...
and the
Eurasian plate. A rhomb-shaped fault-bounded block, known as the Sichuan-Yunnan Block, is recognised that is bounded by the
active left-lateral
strike-slip faults
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 ...
of the
Xianshuihe fault system and the currently right lateral
Red River Fault and
Jinshajiang Fault.
Earthquake
The earthquake was caused by movement on the northwestern part of the
Red River Fault.
The area affected by shaking of at least intensity VII was nearly 5,000 square kilometres.
Damage
The city of
Dali was severely damaged. 76,000 homes were destroyed either by the shaking or subsequent fires. The city walls were badly affected, locally collapsing completely, with battlements devastated and two of the gate towers destroyed. 3,600 people were killed in the city, with a further 7,200 injured. 5,000 livestock were also killed.
In Fengyi, thousands of houses were destroyed and over 1,200 people died, with a further 550 injured. In
Midu County, 159 people died and 165 were injured. In
Binchuan County, over 800 people died and more than 500 were injured. There were also deaths in Dengchuan,
Xiangyun and
Weishan.
See also
*
List of earthquakes in 1925
*
List of earthquakes in China
This is a list of earthquakes in China, part of the series of list of disasters in China by death toll, lists of disasters in China. Earthquakes in the loess plateau where residents lived in yaodong caves tended to have big casualties, includin ...
*
List of earthquakes in Yunnan
*
2021 Dali earthquake
References
External links
*
{{Earthquakes in China
Earthquakes in Yunnan
1925 earthquakes
March 1925 in Asia
1925 in China
Geography of Dali Bai Autonomous Prefecture
History of Dali