The 1981 Dawu earthquake occurred on 24 January at 5:13 a.m. CST,[2] in Sichuan, China.

Registering a surface-wave magnitude of 6.8, the earthquake killed about 150 people and injured roughly 300 more.

China has an extensive history of catastrophic earthquakes that ranges back to 1290.

The first verified earthquake took place in Chih-li, killing roughly 100,000 people.

The Daofu fault forms part of the Xianshuihe fault system, which experienced a sequence of four earthquakes greater than 6.0 between 1973 and 1982, with each event triggering the next in the sequence by changing the stress state.