Earthquakes near Banda Aceh, 1927–2026

The deadliest was not the strongest: a magnitude 6.5 on December 6, 2016 (14 km WNW of Reuleuet, Indonesia), for which NOAA records 104 deaths. 9 earthquakes here in these years are on NOAA’s list of significant earthquakes. NOAA records deaths in 4 of the events here, 115 in all. NOAA lists 4 tsunamis that began within 100 km of Banda Aceh, and 2 from elsewhere that reached it with deaths or a metre of water or more. The highest water NOAA records here was 50.9 m, on December 26, 2004.

• December 6, 2016Earthquake · M 6.514 km WNW of Reuleuet, Indonesia · 104 deaths (NOAA)USGS · NOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
• December 26, 2004Tsunami · 50.9 m hereOff W. Coast Of SumatraNOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
• May 17, 1955Earthquake · M 7.1190 km WNW of Sabang, IndonesiaUSGS · NOAA NCEI
• August 3, 1935Earthquake · M 7.040 km NE of Meulaboh, IndonesiaUSGS

• An event counts for Banda Aceh 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