Earthquakes near Barinas through history

The strongest was an estimated magnitude 7.9 on February 3, 1610 (La Grita,Bailadores,Merida). The deadliest was not the strongest: an estimated magnitude 7.1 on April 29, 1894 (Merida,Tovar; Colombia: N Santander), for which NOAA records 400 deaths. NOAA records deaths in 2 of the events here, 460 in all. NOAA’s record here begins on February 3, 1610 with an earthquake (La Grita,Bailadores,Merida).

• April 29, 1894Earthquake · M 7.1 (est.)Merida,Tovar; Colombia: N Santander · 400 deaths (NOAA)NOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
• February 3, 1610Earthquake · M 7.9 (est.)La Grita,Bailadores,Merida · 60 deaths (NOAA)NOAA NCEI

• An event counts for Barinas 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