January 5, 1721 Earthquake: Tainan, Taiwan

Date

January 5, 1721

Place

Tainan, Taiwan

Magnitude

6 (Ms)

Intensity

8 on the Modified Mercalli scale

Tsunami

None recorded

Epicenter

23.000° N, 120.300° E

Country

Taiwan

Deaths

Many (about 101 to 1,000)

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.

• May 22, 1782, Tainan, Taiwan40,000 deaths · 168 km
• April 20, 1935, Mialoi, TaiwanM6 · 3,276 deaths · 17,907 houses destroyed · 153 km
• July 16, 1935, Xiinzhu, TaiwanM6.5 · 2,746 deaths · 30,000 houses destroyed · 185 km
• September 20, 1999, Nantou, Taichung, Taizhong, TaiwanM7.6 · 2,297 deaths · $14 billion · 106 km
• 1721, Tainan, Taiwan2,000 deaths · 10 km
• June 6, 1862, Tainan, TaiwanM6.5 · 2,000 deaths · 54 km
• March 16, 1906, Jiayi, TaiwanM6.8 · 1,258 deaths · 6,769 houses destroyed · 70 km
• December 3, 1848, Zhanghua, TaiwanM6.8 · 1,001 deaths · 20,300 houses destroyed · 124 km
• February 1845, Zhanghua, TaiwanM6 · 380 deaths · 4,000 houses destroyed · 124 km
• December 16, 1941, TaiwanM7.1 · 319 deaths · 1,768 houses destroyed · 33 km
• January 30, 1736, Tainan, TaiwanM6 · 260 deaths · 500 houses destroyed · 11 km
• August 9, 1792, Jiayi, Tainan, TaiwanM6.8 · 252 deaths · 14,889 houses destroyed · 70 km
• August 28, 1916, TaiwanM6.5 · 180 deaths · 614 houses destroyed · 99 km
• November 5, 1904, Jiayi, TaiwanM6.3 · 145 deaths · 661 houses destroyed · 56 km
• February 5, 2016, Tainan, TaiwanM6.4 · 117 deaths · $700 million · 32 km

Significant earthquakes of 1721The 1700sRecent earthquakes near hereThis day in weather history

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 7921.