Earthquakes near Aizu-Wakamatsu, 1927–2026

The deadliest was not the strongest: a magnitude 7.6 on June 16, 1964 (27 km NW of Murakami, Japan), for which NOAA records 36 deaths. 18 earthquakes here in these years are on NOAA’s list of significant earthquakes. NOAA records deaths in 10 of the events here, 2,821 in all. The latest on NOAA’s list is a magnitude 7.3 on March 16, 2022 (57 km ENE of Namie, Japan). NOAA lists 7 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 2 significant eruptions of 2 volcanoes within 100 km of Aizu-Wakamatsu. The deadliest was Bandaisan on May 9, 1938, which killed 2 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
• June 16, 1964Earthquake · M 7.627 km NW of Murakami, Japan · 36 deaths (NOAA)USGS · NOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
• November 5, 1938Earthquake · M 7.8105 km E of Iwaki, Japan · one death (NOAA)USGS · NOAA NCEI
• May 9, 1938EruptionBandaisan · 2 deaths (NOAA)NOAA NCEI · Wikipedia

• 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