February 25, 2019 Earthquake: Rongxian, Sichuan Province, China
A magnitude 4.9 earthquake struck Rongxian, Sichuan Province, China on February 25, 2019 at 05:16:25 UTC, 10 km below the surface. It killed 2 people.
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 25, 2019
- Time
- 05:16:25 UTC
- Place
- Rongxian, Sichuan Province, China
- Magnitude
- 4.9 (mb)
- Focal depth
- 10 km (6 mi)
- Tsunami
- None recorded
- Epicenter
- 29.470° N, 104.609° E
- Country
- China
- Region
- East Asia
- USGS record
- The USGS’s page for this earthquake
The toll
- Deaths
- 2
- Injuries
- 12
- Damage
- $2 million
- Houses destroyed
- 9
- Houses damaged
- 10,911
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 2019 Zigong earthquake (also known as the Rongxian earthquake) occurred in Zigong, Sichuan Province, China, at about 13:15 on February 25, 2019. The epicentre was located in Rongxian County (29.48 degrees north latitude, 104.49 degrees east longitude), with a magnitude of Ms 4.9, a focal depth of about 5 km and a maximum intensity of VI. The earthquake killed two people and injured 12 others (3 of them seriously).
Text from Wikipedia, “2019 Zigong earthquake”, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Quoted as written; the full article has the rest.
What happened
The USGS’s account of the effects of this earthquake.
Two people killed, 12 injured, 9 houses destroyed and 10,911 damaged in Rong Xian. Damage estimated at 2 million U.S. dollars.
From the USGS event page for us2000jmpz. U.S. Geological Survey text and figures are in the public domain.
What the record says
NCEI’s account, from the sources it cites.
The earthquake hit Rongxian at 1:15 p.m. Monday (Beijing Time). According to the China Earthquake Networks Center (CENC), the epicenter was monitored at 29.48 degrees north latitude and 104.49 degrees east longitude at a depth of 5 km.
Two people died in the quake and 12 were injured, including three seriously. The quakes affected 13,260 people, toppled nine houses and damaged 10,911. Direct economic loss reached close to 14 million yuan (2 million U.S. dollars).
The two victims died after a balcony guard bar fell on them, according to He Yulin, a senior engineer with the Sichuan Earthquake Administration.
It was the third earthquake above magnitude 4 to strike the area in two days. Experts said that the earthquakes might have occurred due to natural causes, but they could not rule out industrial mining.
(above from reference #12383)
Two people killed, 12 injured, 9 houses destroyed and 10,911 damaged in Rong Xian. Damage estimated at 2 million U.S. dollars (reference #1053)
On Feb. 25, 2019, an earthquake shook the village of Gaoshan in China's Sichuan Province, leaving 12 people injured and two dead. New research indicates the earthquake and its two foreshocks were likely triggered by hydraulic fracturing, also called fracking. If this is true, it would mark the first time in history that a fracking-induced earthquake has killed people. (reference #12656)
USD 2,000,000 total damages (reference #1250)
Sources NCEI cites
The publications NCEI lists for this record. The numbers match the “reference #” notes in its account above.
- #12656 Rogers, Nala (Inside Science) (2020). 2019: The Year Fracking Earthquakes Turned Deadly. Published 21 February 2020. Link
- #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.
- #12383 Xinhua News Agency (2019). Shale gas mining halted after quake hits Sichuan. Published 25 February 2019.
- #1250 Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters (CRED) and the U.S. Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance (OFDA) (2001). EM-DAT: The OFDA/CRED International Disaster Database, Universite Catholique de Louvain, Brussels, Belgium, link
Other significant earthquakes nearby
Within 200 km, the deadliest first.
- May 10, 1974, Yunnan and Sichuan Provinces, Chao-T'Ung, China
- July 30, 1917, Yunnan Province, China
- April 20, 2013, Longmen, Sichuan Province, China
- December 18, 1935, Sichuan Province, China
- February 14, 1896, Fushun, Sichuan Province, China
- July 22, 2006, Yanjin, China
- November 8, 1905, Sichuan Province, China
- 26 BC, Yibin, Sichuan, China
- June 17, 2019, Yibin, Sichuan, China
- June 1, 2022, Sichuan Province, China
- September 15, 2021, Luxian (Lu), Sichuan Province, China
- August 8, 2009, Rongchang, Chongqing Province, China
- September 7, 2019, Neijiang, Sichuan Province, China
- January 30, 2010, Moxi, Sichuan Province, China
- August 25, 2006, Sichuan Province, China
More
Significant earthquakes of 2019The 2000sEvery quake the USGS located in 2019Recent 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 10395. The written accounts and the magnitude estimates are from the USGS earthquake catalog, event us2000jmpz, matched to this record by time, place and magnitude.