User:Jarda2020/2022 Dali earthquake

On 4 January 2022, a 6.8 magnitude earthquake strucked the Dali City, Yunnan, China, at a depth of 11.8 km. 27 people were injured by the strong shaking. The earthquake was referred by the Chinese media as the 01.05 earthquake or 2022 Yangbi earthquake.

Tectonic setting
Yunnan lies at the southeastern boundary of the Tibetan Plateau where strike-slip faults accommodate crustal rotation resulting from deformation caused by the ongoing collision between the Indian Plate and the Eurasian Plate which formed the Himalayas and the Tibetan Plateau. The presence of active faults make the region prone to moderate to large earthquakes. Major events in Yunnan Province have occurred in 1833, 1974, 1976, 1988, 2014 and 2021. The nearest active faults in Dali City are the Xiaojiang Fault and Red River Fault. The Red River Fault caused two deadly earthquakes in 1925 near Dali and another in 1970 in Tonghai county.

Earthquake
The earthquake was the result of strike-slip faulting at a shallow depth. It had a maximum intensity of VIII (Severe) on the Mercalli intensity scale. According to the United States Geological Survey (USGS), the earthquake had a moment magnitude of 6.8 while the China Earthquake Networks Center (CENC) and China Earthquake Administration (CEA) measured the earthquake at 7.1 on the surface-wave magnitude scale. The depth of focus is reported to be 11.8 km by the USGS and 8 km by the CEA.

Several hours later, an unrelated Mw 5.9 earthquake struck Southern Qinghai province that was felt in the area.