March 8, 1812 Earthquake: Xinjiang Province, China

Name: March 8, 1812 Earthquake: Xinjiang Province, China
Start: 1812-03-08
Location: Xinjiang Province, China

March 8, 1812 · M8 · Deaths: very many

A magnitude 8 earthquake struck Xinjiang Province, China on March 8, 1812.

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: March 8, 1812
Place: Xinjiang Province, China
Magnitude: 8 (Ms)
Tsunami: None recorded
Epicenter: 43.700° N, 83.000° E
Country: China
Region: Central Asia and Caucasus

The toll

Deaths: Very many (over 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.

March 8, 1812, East of Suiding, Xinjiang Autonomous Region, 43.7 N, 83.0 E, magnitude 7-8.

Fissures 10-30 km in length, 2.5-3 km in width and 33-67 meters in depth appeared everywhere on Hujirtai in Guzuoteha. Hills rose from the flat ground, with porous surface soil. Countless persons and domestic animals were killed on the north bank of the Konggesi River.

Note: Hujirtai was located south of the Kax Rivers or east of the present-day Suiding, The Konggesi River was to the southeast of Suiding.

(above from reference #3939)

Sources NCEI cites

The publications NCEI lists for this record. The numbers match the “reference #” notes in its account above.

#3939 Gu Gongxu, Zhou Wenfu, and Wang Renlong (eds.) (1989). Catalogue of Chinese Earthquakes (1831 B.C. - 1969 A.D.). Science Press, Beijing, China; English translation by Li Zengquan et al. provided through UNESCO, 872 pages.
#1052 Lee, W.H.K., F.T. Wu, and C. Jacobsen (1976). A Catalog of Historical Earthquakes in China Compiled from Recent Chinese Publications. Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America, vol. 66, no. 6, December 1976, p. 2003-2016.

Other significant earthquakes nearby

Within 200 km, the deadliest first.

Significant earthquakes of 1812 The 1800s Recent earthquakes near here This 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 2026-10-01. NCEI earthquake 1599.