February 6, 1973 Earthquake: Sichuan Province, China

Name: February 6, 1973 Earthquake: Sichuan Province, China
Start: 1973-02-06
Location: Sichuan Province, China

February 6, 1973 · M7.6 · 168 houses destroyed

A magnitude 7.6 earthquake struck Sichuan Province, China on February 6, 1973 at 10:37:10 UTC, 33 km below the surface.

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: February 6, 1973
Time: 10:37:10 UTC
Place: Sichuan Province, China
Magnitude: 7.6 (Ms)
Magnitude scales: Ms 7.6 · mb 6.1
Focal depth: 33 km (21 mi)
Intensity: X, extreme shaking, on the Modified Mercalli scale
Tsunami: None recorded
Epicenter: 31.400° N, 100.580° E
Country: China
Region: East Asia
USGS record: The USGS’s page for this earthquake

Ms: surface-wave magnitude. mb: body-wave (P-wave) magnitude. NCEI’s headline magnitude is the best of these for the earthquake.

The toll

Damage: Moderate (about $1 to $5 million)
Houses destroyed: 168

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.

From Wikipedia

The 1973 Luhuo earthquake struck near the town of Zhaggo in Garzê Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture of Sichuan Province, China on February 6, 1973, with a magnitude of 7.6 Ms. The earthquake had a maximum intensity of X (Extreme) on the Modified Mercalli intensity scale. It resulted in between 2,175 and 2,204 deaths and a further 2,743 injuries. Serious and widespread destruction occurred in Luhuo County.

Text from Wikipedia, “1973 Luhuo earthquake”, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Quoted as written; the full article has the rest.

Magnitude estimates

The magnitudes the USGS catalog lists for this earthquake, by scale and by who computed them. NCEI’s own scales are in the table above.

Mag.	Scale	Computed by	Notes
7.4	Ms, surface-wave	USGS National Earthquake Information Center	Preferred · Reviewed
7.4	Mw, moment	ISC-GEM global catalog	Final · ±0.3

What the record says

NCEI’s account, from the sources it cites.

February 6, 1973, 10:37:10.1 UTC, 31.4 N, 100.6 E, Szechwan Province, China, magnitude 6.1 mb, 7.4 MS, unspecified casualties and damage. (reference #1053)

Reference #3959 lists February 6, 1973, 18:37:07.3 Beijing time, 31.3 N, 100.7 E, magnitude 7.6, intensity X, depth 11 km, 134 houses damaged, 34 houses destroyed.

Reference #1229 lists February 6, 1973, 18:37:10.1 UTC, 31.4 N, 100.6 E, depth 33 km, magnitude 6.6 mb, 7.8 MS.

Sources NCEI cites

The publications NCEI lists for this record. The numbers match the “reference #” notes in its account above.

#3959 Gu, G.X. (Chief Editor) (1983). Catalog of Chinese Earthquakes (1970-1979), 334 p., Science Press, Beijing, (in Chinese).
#1039 Rothe, J.P. (1966-1973). Annual Summary of Information on Natural Disasters, UNESCO, Paris, France, 1966 (no. 1) through 1973 (no. 8), 612 p.
#1053 National Earthquake Information Center (NEIC) (1971 to 2013). Preliminary Determination of Epicenters (PDE), a weekly and monthly publication, National Earthquake Information Center, U.S. Geological Survey, Golden, Colorado, 1971 to 2013.
#1232 International Seismological Centre (1964-1990). Regional Catalogue of Earthquakes, 1964-1990, Edinburgh, Scotland.
#88 Duda, Seweryn J. (1965). Secular seismic energy release in the circum-Pacific belt. Tectonophysics, vol. 2, no. 5, p. 409-452. DOI:10.1016/0040-1951(65)90035-1

Other significant earthquakes nearby

Within 200 km, the deadliest first.

Significant earthquakes of 1973 The 1900s Every quake the USGS located in 1973 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 4624. The written accounts and the magnitude estimates are from the USGS earthquake catalog, event usp00000dz, matched to this record by time, place and magnitude.