The earthquake occurred at 16:30, Beijing time (08:30 UTC), on 3 August 2014. American geological surveys indicated that the epicenter was WSW of
Zhaotong city at a depth of , in the quake-prone province of Yunnan in southwestern China, about from Zhaotong. It was especially felt in the province of Yunnan, and less in the provinces of
Guizhou and
Sichuan. The magnitude of the earthquake was 6.1 on the moment magnitude scale, Seismicity in this region of southeast Asia is the direct result of the
orogenic activity of the Himalayan mountain belt. Due to the complex interaction between the
Eurasian plate and
Indo-Australian plate from Afghanistan in the west to Burma and China in the east, many shallow sub-surface faults are present in both southwest China and neighbouring
Myanmar.
Recent earthquakes This particular part of Yunnan Province was struck by the Mw 6.3
Burma earthquake in 2003. Similar events have occurred in recent years due to strike-slip faulting in the nearby vicinity, such as the 7.7
1988 Lancang earthquake, the
2006 Yunnan earthquake of magnitude 5.0, which killed 19 people, the largest of recent times, the Mw 7.9
2008 Sichuan earthquake, which killed over 69,000 people, the Mw 6.9
2011 Shan earthquake, and more recently, the
2012 Yunnan earthquakes, which was the result of
reverse faulting and not strike-slip faulting like the Ludian earthquake, killing 81 people and injuring 821 others. == Damage and casualties ==