Abstract: A magnitude 6.8 earthquake occurred on Feb 24 at 2:3:44 UTC in Bachu and Jiashi county, killed 268 people. This earthquake occurred near the boundary between the Tarim Basin and the Xinjiang South Tian Shan mountain west range in the north-west Tarim Basin. In a broad sense, earthquakes in this region result from stresses induced by the collision of the Indian and Eurasian continental plates, even though the boundary between these plates lies about 1000 km to the south. The Jiashi region surrounding this earthquake has produced several deadly earthquakes in the past decade. The most destructive earthpuakes include a magnitude 6.7 event on March 19, 1996, seven magnitude more than 6.0 from January 21 to April 16, 1997. Up to August 27, 1998, Eleven earthquakes killed 48 people, and destroyed thousands of buildings. The direct economy losing exceed eleven hundred million Yuan. The Indian Plate continuously moves northward at a rate of 45 mm per year relative to the Eurasian Plate generating massive mountain ranges including the Himalaya and causing the uplift of the Tibetan Plateau. These stresses are transmitted to the north, through the rigid and undeforming Tarim Basin, where they generate the Tianshan mountain and numerous earthquakes like this recent event. Several nearby mapped faults have orientations similar to the fault that the earthquake occurred on, although this quake has not yet associated with a specific fault.

Key words: Bachu-Jiashi Earthquake, Continental Plates Collision, Tectonic background