December 22, 1930 Earthquake: Tainan, Taiwan

Date

December 22, 1930

Time

04:19:50 UTC

Place

Tainan, Taiwan

Magnitude

5.5 (Ms)

Tsunami

None recorded

Epicenter

23.200° N, 120.600° E

Country

Taiwan

Damage

Moderate (about $1 to $5 million)

Houses destroyed

121

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 · 145 km
• April 20, 1935, Mialoi, TaiwanM6 · 3,276 deaths · 17,907 houses destroyed · 124 km
• July 16, 1935, Xiinzhu, TaiwanM6.5 · 2,746 deaths · 30,000 houses destroyed · 157 km
• September 20, 1999, Nantou, Taichung, Taizhong, TaiwanM7.6 · 2,297 deaths · $14 billion · 74 km
• 1721, Tainan, Taiwan2,000 deaths · 47 km
• June 6, 1862, Tainan, TaiwanM6.5 · 2,000 deaths · 65 km
• March 16, 1906, Jiayi, TaiwanM6.8 · 1,258 deaths · 6,769 houses destroyed · 46 km
• December 3, 1848, Zhanghua, TaiwanM6.8 · 1,001 deaths · 20,300 houses destroyed · 101 km
• February 1845, Zhanghua, TaiwanM6 · 380 deaths · 4,000 houses destroyed · 101 km
• December 16, 1941, TaiwanM7.1 · 319 deaths · 1,768 houses destroyed · 33 km
• January 30, 1736, Tainan, TaiwanM6 · 260 deaths · 500 houses destroyed · 33 km
• August 9, 1792, Jiayi, Tainan, TaiwanM6.8 · 252 deaths · 14,889 houses destroyed · 46 km
• August 28, 1916, TaiwanM6.5 · 180 deaths · 614 houses destroyed · 63 km
• November 5, 1904, Jiayi, TaiwanM6.3 · 145 deaths · 661 houses destroyed · 45 km
• February 5, 2016, Tainan, TaiwanM6.4 · 117 deaths · $700 million · 29 km

Significant earthquakes of 1930The 1900sEvery quake the USGS located in 1930Recent 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 8003.