April 17, 47 BC Earthquake: Longxi, Gansu Province, China
An earthquake struck Longxi, Gansu Province, China on April 17, 47 BC.
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
- April 17, 47 BC
- Place
- Longxi, Gansu Province, China
- Intensity
- 9 on the Modified Mercalli scale
- Tsunami
- None recorded
- Epicenter
- 34.900° N, 104.700° E
- Country
- China
The toll
- Deaths
- Many (about 101 to 1,000)
- Damage
- Moderate (about $1 to $5 million)
- Houses destroyed
- Many (101 to 1,000)
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 the record says
NCEI’s account, from the sources it cites.
April 17, 47 B.C., SE of Longxi, Gansu Province, 34.9 N, 104.7 E, magnitude 6.75, intensity IX. City walls, palaces and civilian houses in Huandao Circuit (SE of the present-day Longxi) were damaged. Rocks cascaded down the mountainside, the ground was rent open, and jets of water gushed out. A great multitude of inhabitants were killed In Longxi Prefecture (the seat of local government was located at the present-day Lintao County), all the inscribed wooden decorations in the Imperial ancestral temple were destroyed. (reference #3939)
Other significant earthquakes nearby
Within 200 km, the deadliest first.
- December 16, 1920, Gansu Province, Shanxi Province, China
- June 19, 1718, Gansu Province, China
- July 1, 1879, Gansu Province, China
- July 21, 1654, Tianshui, Gansu Province, China
- June 2, 1219, Ningxia, China
- September 12, 1306, Kaicheng, Ningxia, China
- September 2, 1765, Wushan, Gangu, Gansu Province, China
- February 22, 186 BC, Gansu Province, China
- July 20, 1881, Gansu Province, China
- October 26, 1440, Yongdeng, Gansu Province, China
- December 18, 2023, Jishishan, Gansu Province, China
- August 1, 1936, Gansu Province, China
- March 19, 734, Tianshui, Gansu Province, China
- July 21, 2013, Dingxi, Min, Gansu, China
- January 14, 1885, Gansu Province, China
More
Significant earthquakes of 47 BC99 to 1 BCRecent 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 2026-09-24. NCEI earthquake 33.