Earthquakes near Aomori through history

The deadliest was not the strongest: an estimated magnitude 7 on October 31, 1341 (Jusanko), for which NOAA records 2,600 deaths. NOAA’s list of significant earthquakes has 19 here, back to 1088. NOAA records deaths in 16 of the events here, 9,678 in all. The latest on NOAA’s list is a magnitude 7.6 on December 8, 2025 (2025 Aomori Prefecture, Japan Earthquake). NOAA’s record here begins on June 10, 1088 with an earthquake (Sanriku). It grows thinner going back: 7 of the 19 significant earthquakes NOAA lists here are from 1927 on. NOAA lists 2 tsunamis that began within 100 km of Aomori, and 23 from elsewhere that reached it with deaths or a metre of water or more. The highest water NOAA records here was 23 m, on August 29, 1741. The deadliest here came on December 2, 1611 from a magnitude 8.1 earthquake (Sanriku): NOAA’s runup records count 3,000 deaths within 100 km of Aomori. NOAA lists 3 significant eruptions of 2 volcanoes within 100 km of Aomori. The deadliest was Akita-Yakeyama on May 8, 1986, which killed one person by NOAA’s count.

• December 8, 2025Earthquake · M 7.62025 Aomori Prefecture, Japan EarthquakeUSGS · NOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
• May 8, 1986EruptionAkita-Yakeyama · one death (NOAA)NOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
• March 9, 1931Earthquake · M 7.978 km E of Hachinohe, JapanUSGS · NOAA NCEI
• February 7, 1897Earthquake · M 8.3 (est.)NOAA NCEI
• August 29, 1741Tsunami · 23 m hereW. Hokkaido Island · 1,607 deaths here (NOAA)NOAA NCEI
• December 2, 1611Tsunami · 25 m highSanriku · 3,000 deaths here (NOAA)NOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
• October 31, 1341Earthquake · M 7.0 (est.)Jusanko · 2,600 deaths (NOAA)NOAA NCEI
• June 10, 1088Earthquake · M 7.0 (est.)SanrikuNOAA NCEI

• An event counts for Aomori 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