The 1988 Lancang–Gengma earthquakes (simplified Chinese: 澜沧江－耿马地震; traditional Chinese: 瀾滄江－耿馬地震; pinyin: "Láncāngjiāng-gěng mǎ dìzhèn"), also known as the 11.6 earthquake by the Chinese media were a pair of devastating seismic events which struck Lancang and Gengma counties, Yunnan, near the border with Shan State, Burma in the Shan Plateau. The pair of earthquakes occurred thirteen minutes apart with the first registering 7.7 on the moment magnitude scale and second measuring 7.2 on the surface wave magnitude scale. The two earthquakes were assigned their maximum Mercalli intensities of X ("Extreme") and IX ("Violent") respectively. At least 939 people were killed and more than 7,700 were injured in 20 counties across five prefectures in Yunnan, making it the worst in the country since the 1976 Tangshan earthquake. Both earthquakes resulted in US $270 million (in 1988 dollars) in damages and economical losses. Moderately large aftershocks continued to rock the region, causing additional casualties and damages. Much information about the earthquake and its devastation were hidden by the Chinese government as the country was going through major political and cultural revolutions at the time.