China ? A major earthquake struck a sparsely populated region of western China early today. Some houses collapsed, but there were no injuries, state media reported.

The 7.2-magnitude quake hit at 6:33 a.m. (5:33 p.m. CDT Thursday), about 140 miles southeast of the city of Hotan in southwest Xinjiang province, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

A spokesman for China’s Earthquake Administration said it was a 7.3 magnitude quake. There were no reports of injuries, he said, and the area is sparsely populated.

Dale Grant, a USGS geophysicist, described the area as “very seismically active,” but said Friday’s temblor was the biggest there on record.

Xinjiang is a predominantly Muslim region with a culture that is distinctly different from that of China’s ethnic Han majority.