1556 Shaanxi Earthquake
- Date
- January 23, 1556
- Category
- Environment & climate
- Region
- Shaanxi, China (Wei River Valley)
- Era
- Early Modern
- Significance
On 23 January 1556, a catastrophic earthquake of an estimated magnitude around 8.0 struck Huaxian (modern Huazhou) in the Wei River Valley of Shaanxi province during the reign of the Jiajing Emperor of the Ming dynasty, earning it the name the Jiajing Great Earthquake in Chinese records.
It is the deadliest earthquake in recorded human history, with a documented reduction of roughly 830,000 people in imperial hukou registration, including around 100,000 direct deaths and hundreds of thousands more lost to subsequent famine, plague, and displacement. The exceptionally high toll stemmed largely from the collapse of yaodongs, the artificial cave dwellings carved into soft loess cliffs in which most residents slept, burying inhabitants as the cliffs gave way. Damage and casualties extended across some 97 counties in ten provinces, with destruction felt up to 500 kilometres from the epicentre and ground fissures reportedly reaching 20 metres deep. The disaster prompted later Chinese scholars to record observations on earthquake behaviour and advocate building lower, more flexible structures, and it reduced the population of the worst-hit provinces by an estimated 60 percent.
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Empires active in January 23, 1556
- Songhai Empire1464 CE – 1591 CE
- Ming Dynasty1368 CE – 1644 CE
- Ottoman Empire1299 CE – 1922 CE
- Solomonic dynasty1270 CE – 1974 CE
- Mughal Empire1526 CE – 1857 CE
- Portuguese Empire1415 CE – 1999 CE
Related environment & climate events
- Deforestation and Ecological Transformation of Rapa Nui (Easter Island)c. 1600 CE
- Eruption of Huaynaputina19 February 1600
- The Little Ice Age and the General Crisis of the 17th century17th century (peak cooling c. 1600–1700)
- The Great Lisbon Earthquake, Tsunami, and Fire1 November 1755
- Laki Fissure Eruption and the Mist Hardships Famine8 June 1783 – 7 February 1784
- Great Bengal Famine of 17701769–1770
Further reading
The wider story
A New Green History of the World
The classic accessible account of how environment and climate have shaped human history.
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