Earthquakes near Béjaïa through history

The deadliest was not the strongest: an estimated magnitude 5.9 on December 3, 1885 (M'sila), for which NOAA records 33 deaths. NOAA’s list of significant earthquakes has 11 here, back to 1855. NOAA records deaths in 6 of the events here, 52 in all. NOAA’s record here begins on August 22, 1855 with an earthquake. 5 of the 11 significant earthquakes NOAA lists here came before 1927. NOAA lists 3 tsunamis that began within 100 km of Béjaïa. The highest water NOAA records here was 5 m, on August 22, 1856.

• March 18, 2021Earthquake · M 6.021 km NNE of Bejaïa, AlgeriaUSGS · NOAA NCEI
• December 3, 1885Earthquake · M 5.9 (est.)M'sila · 33 deaths (NOAA)NOAA NCEI
• August 22, 1856Tsunami · 5 m hereSea Of AlboranNOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
• August 22, 1855EarthquakeNOAA NCEI

• An event counts for Béjaïa 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