The United States Geological Survey recorded a Magnitude 4.1 Earthquake at a depth of 13.3 km, 30 km to the west of Putian City in Fujian Province, south China, at about 1.50 am local time on Wednesday 30 October 2013 (about 5.50 pm on Tuesday 29 October GMT). There are no reports of any casualties or damage arising from this event, though it was felt locally.
The approximate location of the 30 October 2013 Fujian Province Earthquake. Google Maps.
The Earthquake occurred on the Zhenge-Dapu Fault, which lies between the Cathaysia Block to the west (one of a number of small tectonic blocks sutured onto the southeast of what later became China during the late Neoproterozoic), and the Southeast China Coastal Late Mesozoic Volcanic Zone to the east, which is associated with the convergent margin between the Eurasian Plate (including the Cathaysia Block to the northwest and the Philippine Plate to the southeast. The fault is no longer close to the plate margin, which now underlies Taiwan and the Ryukyu Islands, due to additional material that has been sutured onto the Eurasian Plate by the subduction of the Philippine Plate, but the area is still subject to tectonic pressure caused by the ongoing collision between the plates, leading to occasional quakes in Fujian Province.
See also Magnitude 4.7 Earthquake in southern Sichuan Province, China, Magnitude 5.0 Earthquake in Northern Sichaun Province, China, Eruption and pyroclastic flow on Sakurajima, Kyushu, Earthquake kills at least five in Shangri La and Deqin Counties, Yunnan Province, China and Homes destroyed in Sichuan Earthquake.
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