The 1973 Luhuo earthquake struck near the town of Zhaggo in Garzê Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture of Sichuan Province, China on February 6, 1973, with a magnitude of 7.6 Ms.

Left-lateral strike-slip motion squeezes the crustal blocks of the Tibetan Plateau outwards, forcing it to move eastwards.

Meanwhile, the strike-slip motion also results in east–west extension of the plateau, causing normal faults to break within the thickened crust.

Since 1893, at least 350 km (220 mi) of the fault length has ruptured in large successive earthquakes with magnitudes 6.5 or larger.

[9] A Ms  6.3 aftershock occurred a day later, likely triggered by coulomb stress transfer from the mainshock.

[9] This event was the result of pure left-lateral slip on the Luhuo segment of the Xianshuihe fault system.

Field research through trenching at the Luhuo segment however, revealed a record of earthquake history on the fault in the past 3,000 years.

[3] A division of the People's Liberation Army was sent to the affected area to assist in rescue and recovery efforts.