The 1893 Quchan earthquake occurred at about 19:30 local time (15:06 UTC) on 17 November.

The damage areas of the sequence of earthquakes that affected the Quchan area between 1851 and 1895 follow the projected path of the Quchan fault and its likely continuation as a thrust fault in the Atrak valley, where it forms a surface anticline.

[1] The city of Quchan was almost completely destroyed, with only a few houses strengthened with wooden braces following the 1871 earthquake surviving.

[1] The winter that followed the earthquake was unusually severe, causing many further deaths.

Just over a year later, on January 17, 1895, Quchan was again devastated by an earthquake, although the death toll was lower, as very few houses of adobe construction had survived the 1893 event and new houses were generally of wooden construction.