The deadliest earthquake in human history. Millions lived in cave homes carved into soft loess cliffs; when the cliffs failed in the night, an estimated eight hundred and thirty thousand were lost.
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DownloadThe 1556 Shaanxi earthquake struck on January 23, 1556, registering magnitude 8.0 (estimated magnitude). Each whole step on the moment-magnitude scale is roughly 32 times more energy, so this released on the order of 1,000× the energy of a magnitude 6.0 earthquake.
Its epicenter was located near 34.50°N, 109.70°E, at a depth of about unknown — . Deep earthquakes are felt across a wide region but are usually less destructive at the surface than shallow ones of the same size.
An estimated 830,000 people were killed.