June 10, 1856 Earthquake: Hubei Province, China

Name: June 10, 1856 Earthquake: Hubei Province, China
Start: 1856-06-10
Location: Hubei Province, China

June 10, 1856 · M5.5 · 300 deaths

A magnitude 5.5 earthquake struck Hubei Province, China on June 10, 1856. It killed 300 people.

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: June 10, 1856
Place: Hubei Province, China
Magnitude: 5.5 (Ms)
Intensity: VII, very strong shaking, on the Modified Mercalli scale
Tsunami: None recorded
Epicenter: 29.700° N, 108.800° E
Country: China
Region: East Asia

The toll

Deaths: 300
Damage: Moderate (about $1 to $5 million)

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.

June 10, 1856, W of Xianfeng, Hubei Province, 29.7 N, 108.8 E, magnitude 5.5, intensity VII.

Landslides over 5 km in length occurred at Daluba (30 km west of Xianfeng). Over 300 families were killed; the river water was blocked by rocks and flowed upstream. Areas covering Huijiawan, Banqiaoxi and Shepanxi, a stretch of over 10 km, were all turned into a lake, killing hundreds of people.

Qianjiang: Houses rocked, with roof-tiles pitching off,

people escaped in panic, some fen prostrate.

Earthquakes occurred in Fengjie. Wushan and Dianjiangj

Xianfeng. Laifeng (tiles rocking) and Enshi of Hubei Province; Qianzhou, Huayuan (tiles rocking). Longshan and Baojing (houses and furniture rocking) of Hunan Province.

(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.
#1048 Academia Sinica (1970). Catalog of Chinese Earthquakes; vol. I (1177 BC to 1900 AD) and vol. II (1901 to 1949). Institute of Geophysics, Peking, China. [in Chinese]

Other significant earthquakes nearby

Within 200 km, the deadliest first.

Significant earthquakes of 1856 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 1997.