The United States Geological Survey recorded a Magnitude 4.2 Earthquake at a depth of 13.8 km in southeastern Guizhou Province, China, slightly before 7.30 am local time on Monday 23 March 2015 (slightly before 11.30 pm GMT on Sunday 22 March, GMT). There are no reports of any damage or injuries associated with this event, but it is likely to have been felt locally.
The approximate location of the 23 March 2015 Guizhou Province Earthquake. Google Maps.
Earthquakes are common in west and southwest China, where the Eurasian Plate is being compressed by the impact of the Indian Plate from the south, but much less common in the east and center of the country. However southeastern China is in fact dominated by a series of tectonic blocks, annealed onto the Eurasian Plate during the Triassic. Guizhou Province is located on the South China Block, which is being pushed to the southeast by the motion of the Tibetan Block to the northwest and North China Block to the northeast.
Tectonic map of Asia, showing relationships between the India–Asia collision, escape of Indonesian and South China blocks seaward, and extension from Siberia to the Pacific margin. (Note also the opening of back-arc basins including the Sea of Japan and the South China Sea, and extension in the Bohai Basin and eastern part of the NCC.) The North China Craton is also strongly influenced by Pacific and palaeo-Pacific subduction, perhaps also inducing extension in the eastern NCC. The palaeo Pacific and Pacific subduction zones developed in the Mesozoic, and also contributed to the hydration of the subcontinental lithospheric mantle beneath the NCC. Kusky et al. (2007).
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