At 15:36 on February 10, Dali suffered the first earthquake of 2022, with a magnitude of 4.1.
According to the China Earthquake Observatory Network Express Catalogue, there have been 118 earthquakes of magnitude 3 or above in the past 200 kilometers around the epicenter, and the largest earthquake was a 6.4-magnitude earthquake (21 kilometers from the epicenter) that occurred in Yangpi County, Dali Prefecture, Yunnan Province on May 21, 2021.
Dali is one of the most frequent and most seismically affected areas in Chinese mainland, because it is on the edge of the collision zone between the Indian plate and the Eurasian plate, which is the most active in the world today, and it is an area with intense crustal movement.
The magnitude 6.4 earthquake that occurred in Dali on May 21, 2021 was the 52nd magnitude six earthquake in the world in 2021.
According to statistics, a magnitude 7 earthquake occurs in Yunnan every 8 to 10 years.
Professionally, the areas where earthquakes of magnitude 6-7 or higher have occurred in history are called seismic zones (zones). The Zhongdian-Dali seismic belt is one of the seven main seismic zones with strong seismic activity in Yunnan Province.
According to statistics on seismic activity in Yunnan over the past 100 years, a magnitude 5 earthquake can occur anywhere in Yunnan. Yunnan averages 3 magnitude 5 earthquakes a year, two magnitude 6 earthquakes in three years, one magnitude 7 earthquake in 8-10 years, and an average monthly magnitude 4 earthquake. Among them, according to the statistical analysis of more than 100 years since 1900, the occurrence of earthquakes above magnitude 6.7 in Yunnan is relatively intensive in one time period, and relatively rare in another time period. Since the magnitude 7 earthquake in Lijiang, Yunnan in 1996, there has been no strong earthquake of magnitude 6.7 or above in Yunnan.
Dali has experienced countless large and small earthquakes in its history, but the Qianxun Pagoda of the Three Pagodas of Chongsheng Temple has been built since the Tang Dynasty (824-859 AD) and has stood between the Cang'er land for more than 1200 years, and the four characters of "Yongzhen Mountain and River" on the pagoda shelter the people of Dali.
Earthquakes are natural laws and are inevitable. May the great earthquake and catastrophe be far away from Dali forever, and may Dali always be well!
