Most of the residents there lived in yaodongs—artificial caves in loess cliffs—which collapsed and buried alive those sleeping inside.

Modern estimates by China Earthquake Administration's publications put the direct deaths from the earthquake at roughly 100,000, while over 700,000 either migrated away or died from famine and plagues, which summed up to a total reduction of 830,000 people in Imperial hukou registration.

Huaxian was completely destroyed, killing more than half the residents of the city, with an estimated death toll in the hundreds of thousands.

[12] In the annals of China it was described in this manner: In the winter of 1556, an earthquake catastrophe occurred in the Shaanxi and Shanxi Provinces.

In some places, the ground suddenly rose up and formed new hills, or it sank abruptly and became new valleys.

"[15] The shaking reduced the height of the Small Wild Goose Pagoda in Xi'an by three levels.

[16] Modern estimates, based on geological data, give the earthquake a magnitude of approximately 8 Mw on the moment magnitude scale and XI (catastrophic damage) on the Mercalli scale, though more recent discoveries have shown that it was more likely 7.9 Mw.

The maximum China seismic intensity was XI to XII occurring in Huaxian and Weinan.

Near the town of Huashan, the fault terrace contained Yangshao culture artefacts which were 4,000 years old.

Scarps of the Weinan Fault are less detailed in published works with most focused around the Chishui River area.

[2] More than 97 counties in the provinces of Shaanxi, Shanxi, Henan, Gansu, Hebei, Shandong, Hubei, Hunan, Jiangsu and Anhui were affected.

[23][24] The Portuguese Dominican friar Gaspar da Cruz, who visited Guangzhou later in 1556, heard about the earthquake, and later reported about it in the last chapter of his book A Treatise of China (1569).