June 17, 1954 Earthquake: Anhui Province, China
A magnitude 5.3 earthquake struck Anhui Province, China on June 17, 1954 at 02:08:39 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
- June 17, 1954
- Time
- 02:08:39 UTC
- Place
- Anhui Province, China
- Magnitude
- 5.3 (Ms)
- Intensity
- VI, strong shaking, on the Modified Mercalli scale
- Tsunami
- None recorded
- Epicenter
- 31.600° N, 116.600° E
- Country
- China
- Region
- East Asia
The toll
- Damage
- Limited (under about $1 million)
- Houses destroyed
- Few (about 1 to 50)
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 17, 1954, In and around Hefei and Lu'an, Anhui Province, 31.6 N, 116.6 E, magnitude 5.25, intensity VI.
Hefei: A few houses collapsed or were damaged. Some cement columns split.
Lu'an: Two walls collapsed in a primary school in the southern part of the city.
Jinzhai: Two rooms in an old shabby house collapsed.
Huoshan: An old shabby brick wall and a thatched cottage collapsed.
Tongling: A shabby brick house collapsed.
Sucheng: A shabby wall collapsed.
Gurchi: One house collapsed.
Hudong: Two brick walls fell down.
Dangtu: A wall fell down.
Ohaoxian: A small temple and a wall collapsed.
Hexian: A large part of an already tilted pagoda
collapsed.
Wuwei: Two old thatched cottages collapsed. Old
walls cracked. Low banks of ea rth between field,
were ruined.
Fengyang: Two rooms collapsed.
Taiping: An old shabby house collapsed.
Hanshan : Some paddy field dykes in Mata Township, collapsed.
Shouxian: A wall of an old house cracked about 2 cm wide.
Macheng: An adobe house split 34 em wide. Some
houses in the country hospital cracked.
Jingde: 4 rooms collapsed.
Qianshan: One room in the region government building collapsed.
Bongbu: Walls cracked or tilted.
The affected area was large including the following
places:
Huainan, Wuhu, Anqing, Huoqiu, Feixi, Yuexi (originally split walls collapsed), Tongcheng, Qingyang, Zhide, Taihu, Jingxian (tiles and dust fell from shabby houses), Nanling, Langxi, Xuancheng, Lujiang, Quanjiao, Chuxian, Feidong, Jiashan, Suixi, Wuhe, Huaiyuan, Lingbi, Suxian, Sixian,
Ningguo, Jixi, Xiuning, Shexian, Shidai, Funan, Fengtai, Mengcheng, Fuyang, Linquan, Yingshang, Taihe and Jieshou in Anhui Province; Yingshan and Wuhan in Hubei Province; Shangcheng in Henan Province; Xuyi, Suqian, Suining, Sihong, Siyang, Gaochun, Jiangpu, Nanjing and Lishui in
Jiangsu Province; and Changhua in Zhejiang 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.
Other significant earthquakes nearby
Within 200 km, the deadliest first.
- September 28, 1831, Anhui Province, China
- April 6, 1932, Hubei Province, China
- March 14, 2015, Fuyang, Anhui Province, China
- January 24, 1917, Anhui Province, China
- July 294, Shouxian, Anhui Province, China
- July 2, 1959, Henan Province, China
- January 1531, Jiangsu Province, China
- October 30, 1868, Anhui Province, China
- March 1634, Hubei Province, China
More
Significant earthquakes of 1954The 1900sEvery quake the USGS located in 1954Recent earthquakes near hereThis 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 8038.