October 23, 1614 Earthquake: Shaanxi Province, China
A magnitude 6.5 earthquake struck Shaanxi Province, China on October 23, 1614.
Map
Where it struck, with the other significant earthquakes within 200 km. Circles are sized and colored by magnitude; select one for its page.
The earthquake
- Date
- October 23, 1614
- Place
- Shaanxi Province, China
- Magnitude
- 6.5 (Ms)
- Intensity
- 8 on the Modified Mercalli scale
- Tsunami
- None recorded
- Epicenter
- 37.200° N, 112.500° E
- Country
- China
The toll
- Deaths
- Few (about 1 to 50)
- Damage
- Severe (about $5 to $25 million)
- Houses destroyed
- Many (101 to 1,000)
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.
What the record says
NCEI’s account, from the sources it cites.
October 23, 1614, in and around Plngyao and Yushe, Shaanxi Province, 37.2 N, 112.5 E, magnitude 6.5, intensity VII-VIII.
Yushe: More than 100 rooms collapsed in Henan Street.
Pingyao: Several hundreds of rooms were razed.
Wuxiang: The battlements almost collapsed. There
were deaths reported.
Qinxian: There were people killed.
Yuci: The Gao Pagoda on Luxian Mountain in the south of the county was razed.
The earthquake also struck the following places:
Daixian, Fanzhi, Ningwu, Baode, Taiyuan, Qingxu,
Yu xian and Fenyang; Changzi, Gaoping and Linfen
in Shanxi Province; Hengshan, Fugu, Yulin,
Yan'an, Qingjian and Suide in Shaanxi Province;
Yongnian, Zhengding and Feixiang in Hebe;
Province.
(above from reference #3939)
Other significant earthquakes nearby
Within 200 km, the deadliest first.
- January 9, 1038, Dingxiang, Xinxian, Shaanxi Province, China
- May 18, 1695, Linfen, Shanxi Province, China
- June 12, 1830, Hebei Province, China
- December 4, 1209, Fushan, Shaanxi Province, China
- November 22, 1683, Shanxi Province, China
- October 5, 1314, Shexian, Hebei, China
- August 25, 1291, Shaanxi Province, China
- September 12, 649, Linfen, Shaanxi Province, China
- April 17, 1891, Shanxi Province, China
- August 19, 820, Fan Chong, Shaanxi Province, China
- January 15, 1102, Chin,hsi Tai IN Tai,yuan, Shanxi Province, China
- July 8, 1368, Xugou, Shanxi Province, China
- May 14, 1351, Yushe, Shanxi Province, China
- 1890, Shanxi Province, China
- May 20, 1618, Shanxi Province, China
More
Significant earthquakes of 1614The 1600sRecent earthquakes near hereThis day in weather history
Sources
Significant earthquakes from NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information, Global Historical Hazard Database, cited as NCEI/WDS, doi:10.7289/V5PN93H7. Public domain. Read 2026-09-24. NCEI earthquake 7945.