The epicentre was in Maru township in Baqen county, about 190 kilometres east-northeast of Nagqu and roughly 390 kilometres northeast of Lhasa, the regional capital. The US Geological Survey measured the quake's depth at 18 kilometres. India's National Centre for Seismology reported a depth of 173 kilometres.

At least 339 homes and 20 livestock sheds collapsed, according to the Nagqu media office. About 12,000 residents were relocated. Videos posted on the Douyin app showed people rushing out of buildings and goods falling from shop shelves. Other footage showed officers inspecting rubble and packing supplies at night.

Chinese authorities activated a Level-III earthquake emergency response and sent more than 1,600 personnel to the area. They included more than 300 police officers, according to a post by the Nagqu police department, and 347 members of the regional fire and rescue corps. Shipments to the region included 1,000 prefabricated housing units and 3,000 tents, along with folding beds, flashlights and winter clothing.

Chinese President Xi Jinping ordered officials to "go all-out to carry out search and rescue operations and do our utmost to treat the injured, to minimise casualties."

Rescue crews face intermittent snow forecast for the next three days, as well as rockfalls. Falling rock closed a section of National Highway 317 to everything except emergency and rescue vehicles. Lhawang Dagpo, a deputy head of the local township, said power and telecommunications had been cut. Both services are gradually being restored.

The USGS recorded at least seven aftershocks between magnitude 4.3 and 5.2. The China Earthquake Networks Center counted 413.

Penpa Tsering, president of the Central Tibetan Administration, the Tibetan government in exile, warned that the real damage could be greater than reported because information from the region is hard to obtain. Reports of the quake noted that China invaded Tibet in 1950 and has occupied the region since. After a failed uprising in 1959, the Dalai Lama fled to Dharamshala in India, where his followers run the exile government.

Earthquakes have hit the Tibetan plateau hard before. In January 2025, a quake near Tingri county, close to Mount Everest, killed at least 126 people. A magnitude-7.1 earthquake in Yushu, in neighbouring Qinghai province, killed at least 2,698 people in 2010.