On February 4, 1975, at 19:36 CST, an earthquake of Ms 7.5 and intensity (MMI) IX hit the city of Haicheng, Liaoning, China.

The early evacuation ordered by Chinese officials had been questioned to whether it was a scientific earthquake prediction or a fluke.

The theory states "that north-northeast China is part of an integral geological system characterized by neotectonic right-lateral motion along north-northeast trending structures",[6] in other terms, this relates to the deformation of the Eurasian plate with an east–west compressive stress regime which was caused by continental collision at the Himalaya and plate subduction along the Japan–Kuril trenches.

Both authorities and citizens were finally placed on high alert and an evacuation order was issued due to an increase in foreshocks.

When the main quake struck at 7:36 pm, a reported 2,041 people died, over 27,000 were injured and thousands of buildings collapsed.

The earthquake's close proximity to a city of one million residents caused a large amount of destruction to infrastructure and property.

There was mass building collapse throughout the area as well as the destruction of cultivated land, roads, highways, and railways.

It is approximated that 90% of the structures in Haicheng at the time experienced significant damage or were completely destroyed by the earthquake.

Interruption of electrical service was also reported due to transformer tripping that is attributed to long-period seismic waves from the high magnitude earthquake being able to travel far distances.

[8] The early evacuation ordered by Chinese officials had been questioned to whether it was a scientific earthquake prediction or a fluke.

Due to these foreshocks, some of the final evacuation orders were given only hours before the destructive earthquake preventing further loss of life.

[9] After the occurrence of a number of large earthquakes from 1966 to 1969, a meeting was held nationally to discuss where the largest seismic danger was in the People's Republic of China.

There was then a large increase in scientific investigation in the surrounding province of Liaoning, as well as many new seismic stations, due to the long-range prediction.

They believed that the magnitude 5–6 earthquake they had predicted in 1970 would now occur within the next 2 years in the northern part of the Pohai Gulf.

These quakes prompted the Revolutionary Committee of the Liaoning Province to issue alerts of a possible large earthquake in the near future.

[10] The prediction was further updated to be a magnitude 5.5–6 earthquake in the first half of 1975, likely due to the series of quakes at the end of 1974 as well as the observations of animals and groundwater.

Rats appeared "drunk", chickens refused to enter their coops and geese frequently took to flight.