Beirut

Earthquakes near Beirut through history

USGS recorded no earthquake of magnitude 6 or more within 100 km of Beirut from 1900 to October 19, 2026. NOAA’s list of significant earthquakes has 22 within 100 km of Beirut, back to 760 BCE.

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The last 30 days · as of

USGS recorded no earthquake of magnitude 4.5 or more within 100 km of Beirut in the last 30 days.

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What the record holds

The strongest was an estimated magnitude 7.6 on May 20, 1202 (Southwestern). The deadliest was not the strongest: an earthquake on September 18, 844 (Dimashq (Damascus); Turkey: Antakya), for which NOAA records 50,000 deaths. NOAA records deaths in 6 of the events here, 118,060 in all. The latest on NOAA’s list is a magnitude 5 on February 15, 2008 (Baalbec). NOAA’s record here begins in 760 BCE with an earthquake (Jerusalem). NOAA lists 6 tsunamis that began within 100 km of Beirut. The highest of them reached 8 m, on October 30, 1759.

The events

  • February 15, 2008Earthquake · M 5.0BaalbecNOAA NCEI
  • November 25, 1759Earthquake · M 7.4 (est.)Baalbec; Syria: Damascus, Antioch · 30,000 deaths (NOAA)NOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
  • October 30, 1759Tsunami · 8 m highAkkoNOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
  • May 20, 1202Earthquake · M 7.6 (est.)Southwestern · 30,000 deaths (NOAA)NOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
  • September 18, 844EarthquakeDimashq (Damascus); Turkey: Antakya · 50,000 deaths (NOAA)NOAA NCEI
  • 760 BCEEarthquakeJerusalemNOAA NCEI

Good to know

  • An event counts for Beirut 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

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