May 28, 1998 Earthquake: Southern Xinjiang, China
A magnitude 5.6 earthquake struck Southern Xinjiang, China on May 28, 1998 at 21:11:44 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
- May 28, 1998
- Time
- 21:11:44 UTC
- Place
- Southern Xinjiang, China
- Magnitude
- 5.6 (Mw)
- Magnitude scales
- Mw 5.6 · Ms 5.6 · mb 5.2
- Focal depth
- 33 km (21 mi)
- Tsunami
- None recorded
- Epicenter
- 37.388° N, 78.843° E
- Country
- China
- Region
- Central Asia and Caucasus
- USGS record
- The USGS’s page for this earthquake
Mw: moment magnitude, based on the slip on the fault and the area that slipped. Ms: surface-wave magnitude. mb: body-wave (P-wave) magnitude. NCEI’s headline magnitude is the best of these for the earthquake.
The toll
- Injuries
- 28
- Damage
- Severe (about $5 to $25 million)
- Houses destroyed
- 2,000
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 happened
The USGS’s account of the effects of this earthquake.
Twenty-eight people injured, more than 2,000 buildings destroyed, an additional 3,000 damaged and 5,000 head of cattle killed in southwestern Xinjiang.
From the USGS event page for usp0008nw6. U.S. Geological Survey text and figures are in the public domain.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 5.6 | Mwc, centroid moment | USGS National Earthquake Information Center | Preferred · Reviewed |
| 5.6 | Mw, moment | ISC-GEM global catalog | Final · ±0.1 |
| 5.6 | Mwc, centroid moment | Global CMT project | Preliminary |
What the record says
NCEI’s account, from the sources it cites.
1998, May 28. Twenty-eight people injured, more than 2,000 buildings destroyed, an additional 3,000 damaged and 5,000 head of cattle killed in southwestern Xinjiang. (reference #1053)
Sources NCEI cites
The publications NCEI lists for this record. The numbers match the “reference #” notes in its account above.
- #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.
Other significant earthquakes nearby
Within 200 km, the deadliest first.
More
Significant earthquakes of 1998The 1900sEvery quake the USGS located in 1998Recent 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 5494. The written accounts and the magnitude estimates are from the USGS earthquake catalog, event usp0008nw6, matched to this record by time, place and magnitude.