Earthquakes near Aizu-Wakamatsu through history

The deadliest was not the strongest: an estimated magnitude 7.4 on May 8, 1847 (Zenkoji, Nagano), for which NOAA records 12,000 deaths. NOAA’s list of significant earthquakes has 37 here, back to AD 850. NOAA records deaths in 28 of the events here, 24,133 in all. The latest on NOAA’s list is a magnitude 7.3 on March 16, 2022 (57 km ENE of Namie, Japan). NOAA’s record here begins on November 27, 850 with an earthquake (Yomagata, Shonai). It grows thinner going back: 18 of the 37 significant earthquakes NOAA lists here are from 1927 on. NOAA lists 13 tsunamis from elsewhere that reached the coast within 100 km of Aizu-Wakamatsu with deaths or a metre of water or more. The highest water NOAA records here was 21.1 m, on March 11, 2011. The deadliest here came on March 11, 2011 from a magnitude 9.1 earthquake (Honshu Island): NOAA’s runup records count 2,735 deaths within 100 km of Aizu-Wakamatsu. NOAA lists 9 significant eruptions of 5 volcanoes within 100 km of Aizu-Wakamatsu. The largest was Bandaisan on July 15, 1888, at 4 on the volcanic explosivity index. It killed 461 people by NOAA’s count.

• March 16, 2022Earthquake · M 7.357 km ENE of Namie, Japan · 4 deaths (NOAA)USGS · NOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
• March 11, 2011Earthquake · M 7.9Near E Coast HonshuUSGS · NOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
• March 11, 2011Tsunami · 21.1 m hereHonshu Island · 2,735 deaths here (NOAA)NOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
• November 5, 1938Earthquake · M 7.8105 km E of Iwaki, Japan · one death (NOAA)USGS · NOAA NCEI
• July 15, 1888Eruption · VEI 4Bandaisan · 461 deaths (NOAA)NOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
• May 8, 1847Earthquake · M 7.4 (est.)Zenkoji, Nagano · 12,000 deaths (NOAA)NOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
• November 27, 850Earthquake · M 7.0 (est.)Yomagata, ShonaiNOAA NCEI

• An event counts for Aizu-Wakamatsu when it began within 100 km of its centre, or 200 km for an earthquake of magnitude 7 or more. Damage can reach further.
• USGS counts here start at magnitude 6: the catalogue’s smaller quakes thin out going back, where few instruments listened.
• NOAA lists significant events only: earthquakes that killed, did about $1 million of damage, reached magnitude 7.5 or intensity X, or raised a tsunami, and eruptions and tsunamis by like measures. Magnitudes before 1900 are its estimates from written accounts.
• Deaths are NOAA’s total for each event, wherever people died, its tsunami and fires included. A tsunami counts the dead its runup records give for this place: NOAA’s total for a tsunami includes its source quake’s.
• A tsunami from elsewhere counts where one of its runups killed or rose a metre or more.
• Counted to October 19, 2026, as is the map. The last 30 days ask USGS again.

How the layers work, where their data comes from and what they can’t tell you: Earthquakes, live, The world through history