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: December 18, 1967
Time: 14:07:45 UTC
Place: Shanxi Province, China
Magnitude: 5.4 (Ms)
Focal depth: 30 km (19 mi)
Intensity: VI, strong shaking, on the Modified Mercalli scale
Tsunami: None recorded
Epicenter: 36.467° N, 111.217° E
Country: China
Region: East Asia
USGS record: The USGS’s page for this earthquake

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.

December 18, 1967, 22:07:45 (Beijing local time), Puxian, Shanxi Province, 36 deg 28 min N, 111 deg 13 min E, magnitude 5.4, intensity VI, depth 30 km.

In Huale and Xipingyuan, Puxian County; Wucheng Town and Luoehengpu, Xixian County; Sangbi, Yonghe County and vVencheng, Jixian County, etc. houses and cave dwellings partially collapsed, some enclosing walls of yard, partitions and chimneys fell, eaves fell, beams and pillars moved, walls bulged out. Individual regions, such as Guxian,

Puxian County, suffered more. Houses and cave dwellings cracked up to a width of 10 cm. A few beams of old houses fell. Front walls of many cave dwellings fell, a few cave dwellings collapsed. Fissures, landslides and collapses occurred in regions covered with loess. A large arched fissure about 15 m long and 3 cm wide occurred by an

earth road in Xueguan, A set of arch-shaped gravitational fissures, about 150m long, trending roughly NW, occurred at a hilltop behind Wncheng and Shanghucheng. The earth block sunk for 5-17 cm along the main fissure.

Puxian: The roof ridge of an east-wing room of a store near the city broke for 6 m long, a part of the top of the southern wall fell. In the north building, cracks occurred under the beam, plaster fell, doors and windows cracked at their corners. In the 2nd story of a military office, cracks occurred in large numbers, X-shaped cracks appeared on the east wall. By the city gate, cracks occurred and dust fell in many brick cave dwellings, some chimneys on roofs fell.

Xixian: By a city gate, some houses collapsed or had fallen eaves, some chimneys On roofs collapsed. Walls cracked in individual brick houses. Partitions on the second floor of some buildings fell or cracked. For example, a crack in the wall on the second floor of a military office was 40 cm in length. The ground fissured. A partition on the second floor of a barbershop fell under shaking.

Daning: Cracks occurred at corners or in walls in the buildings of the city-gate Forestry Station.

Cracks in some partitions further widened. A stone

cave split and earth and rocks fell. Some chimneys

on roofs fell.

Shilou: Dust or plaster fell in houses by the city

gate. Cracks occurred in a number of earth

cave dwellings. Individual Chimneys fell.

Yonghe: Houses near the city gate were damaged

slightly. Some stone cave dwelling cracked. Individual

chimneys fell. Houses of the grain bureau

were seriously damaged, Cracks occurred in

large numbers. Doors and window arches were

cracked and displaced by shaking.

Zhongyang: A chimney of the electrical equipment

store by the city gate fell under shaking. The foundation

of the wall of a storehouse cracked.

Fenyang: Former fissures in individual old houses

were widened. The back gable of an old house

collapsed. A chimney fell.

(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.

More

Significant earthquakes of 1967 The 1900s Every quake the USGS located in 1967 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 7976. The written accounts and the magnitude estimates are from the USGS earthquake catalog, event iscgem828522, matched to this record by time, place and magnitude.