Earthquakes rank among the most frequent and impactful natural disasters globally, posing a significant global challenge to human survival and development. Seismic disasters exhibit the following salient characteristics:
- Immense Destructiveness. Earthquakes cause destruction to mountains, ground surfaces, and their attachments (e.g., vegetation, buildings), often accompanied by secondary disasters such as tsunamis, fires, landslides, and floods. They result in massive casualties, property losses, and may induce new hazards in modern socio-economic systems, including communication failures and computer system accidents.
- Instantaneous Occurrence and Unpredictability. Earthquakes strike instantaneously, with durations ranging from mere seconds to a maximum of 2-3 minutes, causing catastrophic collapses before effective defensive actions can be organized. Current scientific capabilities remain inadequate for predicting seismic events, a limitation likely to persist long into the future.
- High Frequency. Approximately over 5 million earthquakes occur annually worldwide, averaging tens of thousands daily. Most are imperceptibly minor or distant, with only around 10-20 causing substantial human impact and 1-2 resulting in exceptionally severe damage.
The socio-economic impacts of earthquakes are multifaceted. At the macro level:
- On one hand, sudden natural disasters like earthquakes severely damage regional infrastructure and buildings, potentially causing massive casualties and negative economic repercussions.
- On the other hand, disaster-induced destruction creates opportunities for urban architectural upgrades and new developmental pathways, resolving conflicts between land redevelopment and durable structures in urban growth while injecting new momentum into local economies.
At the micro level:
- The extensive damage from natural disasters imposes tremendous fiscal pressure on local governments for short-term rescue and reconstruction efforts, potentially leading to intensified corporate tax enforcement to boost fiscal revenues, thereby directly affecting enterprises.
The CnOpenData China Earthquake Information Dataset contains Basic Earthquake Information Tables (year, occurrence time, latitude, longitude, depth, magnitude), peripheral cities, historical earthquakes, seismic phase records, and distribution data of seismic networks. It comprehensively covers earthquake-related information aggregated by China's seismic networks, providing high-quality data resources for relevant research.
Temporal Coverage
Please refer to individual sub-tables
Data Scale
Please refer to individual sub-tables
Field Display
中国历史地震目录信息表字段
中国地震台网地震详细信息表字段
中国地震震相信息表字段
中国测震台网地域分布信息表字段
Sample Data
China Historical Earthquake Catalog (Pre-1969)
China Historical Earthquake Catalog (M≥5 Earthquakes)
China Seismic Network Detailed Information Table
China Seismic Network Regional Distribution Table
References
- Yu Yewen, Gong Yaxian, Chen Binkai et al., 2022: "Household Asset Allocation under Dual Constraints of Property and Life Risks: Evidence from Earthquake Exposure," China Industrial Economics 5.
Update Frequency
Annual updates