2003 Dayao earthquake
earthquake in Yunnan, China
The 2003 Dayao earthquake occurred on July 21, at 23:16:33 CST. The epicenter of the moment magnitude 5.9 earthquake was in Dayao County in the mountainous area of central Yunnan, China. At least 19 people were killed, 644 were injured, and 8,406 families became homeless. The quake also caused $75 million USD in damage.
Tectonic setting
Yunnan is located at the southeastern edge of the Tibetan Plateau, where the Indian plate is colliding north–northeast into the Eurasian plate (Asia). The continental deformation is accommodated by major faults in the area, mostly of strike-slip movement. The Indian plate pushes into Asia, uplifting the Tibetan Plateau and causes it rotate clockwise, along the Xianshuihe fault system. This deformation spreads into Yunnan, where active strike-slip faulting occurs.
Earthquake
The earthquake measured 6.1 on the surface-wave magnitude scale. It was the first of two strong earthquakes in the same area that year. In October, a Ms 6.2 (Mw 5.6) earthquake struck nearby, killing three people.
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This entry incorporates text from “2003 Dayao earthquake” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.