China earthquakes

M6.0 earthquake 75 km SSW of Dadukou, China

A magnitude 6.0 earthquake struck 75 km SSW of Dadukou, China on Mon, Jul 21, 2003, 11:16 PM GMT+8 (15:16 UTC), 10 km (6 mi) below the surface.

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Map

Where this earthquake was located, with the others nearby. Select one for its page.

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The earthquake

Magnitude: 6.0 (Mwb, body-wave moment), strong
Magnitude from: USGS National Earthquake Information Center
Local time: Mon, Jul 21, 2003, 11:16 PM GMT+8
UTC: 2003-07-21 15:16:31 UTC
Depth: 10.0 km (6.2 mi), shallow
Epicenter: 25.975° N, 101.290° E
Region: China
Strongest shaking: VII, very strong shaking
Tsunami flag: No
Status: Reviewed by a seismologist

Magnitude estimates

Different scales measure different things and differ by a few tenths. The USGS marks one as preferred, and it is the one this page uses.

Mag.	Scale	Computed by	Notes
6.0	Mwb, body-wave moment	USGS National Earthquake Information Center	Preferred · Reviewed
5.9	Mw, moment	ISC-GEM global catalog	Final · ±0.1
5.9	Mwc, centroid moment	Global CMT project	Preliminary

Deaths and damage

From NOAA NCEI’s Significant Earthquake Database (record 5707), matched to this event by time and place.

Deaths: 16
Injuries: 584
Damage: $75 million
Houses destroyed: 264,878
Houses damaged: 264,878

Where the literature gives no number, NCEI records a description on a scale of 1 to 4, printed here in its words. Damage is in millions of US dollars of the year of the event, not adjusted for inflation.

NOAA’s full record of this earthquake

What happened

The USGS’s account of the effects of this earthquake.

At least 16 people killed, 584 injured, 264,878 buildings destroyed, 1,186,000 houses damaged and 1,508 livestock killed in Yunnan. A power station was damaged and landslides blocked roads in the province. Damage estimated at 75 million U.S. dollars.

From the USGS event page for usp000c30u. U.S. Geological Survey text and figures are in the public domain.

Shaking

The USGS ShakeMap: shaking estimated from seismic stations and the quake’s size, on the Modified Mercalli intensity scale.

Strongest estimated: VII, very strong shaking
Peak ground acceleration: 29.5% of gravity
Peak ground velocity: 3.4 cm/s
Map: Automatic

USGS ShakeMap: estimated shaking intensity around the epicenter — Estimated shaking intensity. Map: USGS ShakeMap.

Did you feel it?

No one has reported feeling this quake to the USGS.

Fault motion and ground failure

How the rock slipped, from the moment tensor, and the USGS estimate of landslides and liquefaction.

Faulting: Strike-slip
Nodal plane 1: Strike 200°, dip 80°, rake -6°
Nodal plane 2: Strike 291°, dip 84°, rake -170°

Tectonic setting

Why earthquakes happen here, from the USGS tectonic summary.

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.

From the USGS event page for usp000c30u. U.S. Geological Survey text and figures are in the public domain.

How well it is located

Reviewed by a seismologist.

Depth from: OPERATOR_ASSIGNED
Station coverage gap: 41°
Stations used: 316

Nearest places

Distance and direction from each place to the epicenter, with its forecast.

Nearby

Within 100 km, magnitude 3.0 and up: 6 in the 60 days after this one and 0 in the 30 days before it.

After

Earthquakes today China earthquakes Live radar here

Sources

From the USGS Earthquake Hazards Program and its partner networks, event usp000c30u (also filed as gcmtc072103d, gcmt20030721151631, atlas20030721151637, iscgem7003234). Read Fri, Oct 2, 2026, 7:26 AM UTC.