A powerful magnitude 7.0 earthquake struck northern Tibet late Thursday night, shaking the remote high-altitude county of Baqen in Nagqu City at 10:33 p.m. local time. The shallow quake, the strongest to hit the region since January 2024, rattled a sparsely populated stretch of the Tibetan Plateau already reeling from deadly flash floods just weeks earlier.
A shallow quake in a remote, high-altitude region
The China Earthquake Networks Center (CENC) put the earthquake's magnitude at 7.0, striking at a shallow depth of about 10 kilometers — a depth that tends to amplify ground shaking at the surface. The epicenter was monitored at 32.40 degrees north latitude and 93.79 degrees east longitude, roughly 118 miles east-northeast of Nagqu and about 400 kilometers from the Tibetan capital of Lhasa. The United States Geological Survey (USGS) measured a similar shallow depth, noting that shallow quakes tend to amplify ground shaking at the surface.
The terrain around the epicenter is extreme: CENC data showed the average elevation within 5 kilometers is about 4,864 meters.
A magnitude 5.2 aftershock was felt about 45 minutes after the main quake, and a string of smaller magnitude 3 and 4 tremors have been recorded in the surrounding regions since. The USGS also flagged a landslide hazard in the area, given the steep terrain of the Tibetan Plateau.
Injuries reported, rescue teams on the move
State media reported that local authorities found at least two people injured in a village near the epicenter, with some houses in the villages closest to the epicenter showing cracks. Videos released by local media showed residents leaving their homes and sheltering outside or in parked cars. One resident said the quake woke them and that they could hear the house squeaking during the tremor.
Local fire and rescue teams have been mobilized and were heading to the affected region as the damage picture became clearer. No confirmed deaths had been reported as of early assessments.
Region still recovering from devastating floods
The earthquake has renewed attention on the vulnerability of the Tibetan Plateau, where communities are still grappling with the aftermath of catastrophic flash floods. An ice-rock avalanche near the Nepal-Tibet border on August 26 triggered floods that swept away homes, roads and bridges, damaged hydropower projects, and left thousands of people missing, according to DD India. In Nepal, at least 1,455 people were killed and 5,285 remained missing, with authorities estimating nearly $5 billion will be needed for early recovery and rehabilitation.
Scientists have warned that rising temperatures, retreating glaciers and increasingly extreme weather could heighten natural disaster risks across the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. The region has seen repeated seismic activity: a magnitude 5.0 quake struck Tibet on September 3, and in January 2025 a magnitude 6.8 earthquake in the region killed more than 120 people and injured hundreds.
Why Tibet shakes so often
The Tibetan Plateau is one of the world's most seismically active zones. It sits directly over the collision point of the Indian and Eurasian tectonic plates, whose slow but relentless movement builds up the enormous pressure released in earthquakes across Tibet and the surrounding Himalayas. In 2010, a magnitude 7.1 tremor struck Yushu in neighboring Qinghai province, killing at least 2,698 people.
Thursday's quake struck one of the planet's least accessible seismic zones, which complicates damage assessment for isolated mountain communities. With aftershocks expected to continue in the hours and days ahead, rescue teams face rugged terrain and a population already shaken by the season's disasters.
Watch: "Massive Magnitude 7.0 Earthquake Strikes Tibet, China" — a video report on the October 22, 2026 earthquake in northern Tibet.
Music in this post's reel: Kevin MacLeod - Volatile Reaction (incompetech.com), licensed under CC BY 3.0