August 5, 1940 Earthquake: Liaoning Province, China

Name: August 5, 1940 Earthquake: Liaoning Province, China
Start: 1940-08-05
Location: Liaoning Province, China

August 5, 1940 · M5.8 · 1,190 houses destroyed

A magnitude 5.8 earthquake struck Liaoning Province, China on August 5, 1940 at 09:55:15 UTC.

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: August 5, 1940
Time: 09:55:15 UTC
Place: Liaoning Province, China
Magnitude: 5.8 (Ms)
Intensity: VIII, severe shaking, on the Modified Mercalli scale
Tsunami: None recorded
Epicenter: 40.200° N, 122.000° E
Country: China
Region: East Asia
USGS record: The USGS’s page for this earthquake

The toll

Damage: Severe (about $5 to $25 million)
Houses destroyed: 1,190

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.

August 5, 1940, 17;55:15 local time, Xiongyue, Liaoning Province, 40.2 N, 122 E, magnitude 5.75, intensity VIII.

Xiongyue: In the county seat and 9 villages nearby,

1,190 houses were completely collapsed, 9,736 partly destroyed (in Jiuzhai Village, 740 houses collapsed, 4,261 destroyed), 740 rooms collapsed and 4,261 were dilapidated), the completely destroyed houses amounted to over 50%. Swampy

lowlands near the coast of Xianglangqi fissured and with ground water gushed out. According to a recent investigation, most enclosing walls of pigsties in the East- and West-Talzi villages collapsed. Most houses cracked, and a few roofs caved in.

The quake was felt over an area covering Yingkou, Xinjin, Shenyang, Dalian, Lilshun, Anshan, Jinzhou and Lianshanguan, etc.

Aftershocks did not die away till next April.

(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 1940 The 1900s Every quake the USGS located in 1940 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 3671. The written accounts and the magnitude estimates are from the USGS earthquake catalog, event iscgem901523, matched to this record by time, place and magnitude.