Earthquake hits Lhaze in Tibet, no casualties reported
By Tenzin Chokyi
DHARAMSALA, 12 May: An earthquake with a magnitude of 5.5 struck Lhaze County in Shigatse City in the traditional Tibetan province of U-Tsang at 2:41 AM on Monday, according to the China Earthquake Administration (CEA).
According to Lhaze TV, a Chinese state-run media outlet from the region, authorities have dispatched emergency response services. There are no reports of casualties so far.
The report noted that ‘there has been no disruption to the supply of water, electricity or road access in the region and that all services remain fully operational.”
Two aftershocks with magnitudes of 3.7 and 3.8 were reported in the region by India’s National Centre for Seismology(NCS) at 5:36 am (CST)and 6:18 am (CST), respectively.
Slightly different from the CEA’s assessment, India’s NCS reported the earthquake as 5.7 on the Richter scale, at a depth of 10km, that hit Lhaze County.
The NCS said in a post on social media platform X, “EQ of M: 5.7, On: 12/05/2025 02:41:24 IST, Lat: 29.02 N, Long: 87.48 E, Depth: 10 Km, Location: Tibet”.
Earlier in January, when Tingri in occupied Tibet, near Lhaze County, was hit by a 7.1 magnitude earthquake, the Chinese authorities underreported the earthquake as a 6.8 magnitude. Additionally, statistics were not accurately presented at the outset by the Chinese authorities.
While the reported death toll remained unchanged at at least 126, the estimated number of displaced people was later revised from 60,000 to 120,000 during the launch of a major reconstruction effort across eight severely damaged villages, following the devastating earthquake.
A few days earlier, on 8th and 9th May, the Lhaze region experienced earthquakes of magnitudes 3.7 and 3.8, according to reports from the NCS.
The Times of India has reported that “surface-level earthquakes pose greater risk than deeper ones because they release more energy near ground level”, which results in “more intense ground movement and potentially greater structural damage and casualties compared to deeper seismic events”.
Tibet, currently under Chinese occupation, is located at the collision zone of the Indian and Eurasian tectonic plates, which makes it one of the world’s most seismically active regions.
Since 1950, more than 21 earthquakes of magnitude 6 or higher have been recorded in the Lhasa Terrane alone. The strongest in recent decades was the 1950 Assam–Tibet earthquake (magnitude 8.6–8.8), one of the largest onshore earthquakes ever recorded.
Recent research on earthquakes in occupied Tibet presents two complementary scientific arguments. One group of scholars, including Lin Liu and colleagues, proposes that the Indian tectonic plate is undergoing a “slab tear” beneath Tibet, where its upper crust vertically separates from the denser lower layer deep underground, generating significant seismic activity.
Meanwhile, another team led by Kang Li and others has discovered the Qixiang Co Fault, a previously unrecognised, 1,000-kilometre-long fault in central Tibet that facilitates the eastward movement of the plateau and increases surface earthquake risk.
Together, these findings suggest that both deep mantle processes and large surface faults contribute to the region’s complex and active seismic environment.
