Magnitude 7.2 (strongest quake) | Start date March 8, 1966 | |
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Areas affected People's Republic of China Casualties 8,064 dead, 38,000 injured Similar 1970 Tonghai earthquake, 1975 Haicheng earthquake, 1920 Haiyuan earthquake, 1976 Tangshan earthquake, 2008 Damxung earthquake | ||
The Xingtai earthquake (Chinese: 邢台大地震; pinyin: Xíngtái Dà Dìzhèn) was a sequence of major earthquakes that took place between March 8 and March 29, 1966, in the area administered by the prefecture-level city of Xingtai in southern Hebei province, People's Republic of China.
The first earthquake with magnitude 6.8 on the Richter scale and epicenter in Longyao County occurred in the early morning of March 8, 1966. It was followed by a sequence of five earthquakes above magnitude 6 on the Richter scale that lasted until March 29, 1966. The strongest of these quakes had a magnitude of 7.2 and took place in the southeastern part of Ningjin County on March 22. The earthquake damage included 8,064 dead, 38,000 injured and more than 5 million destroyed houses.