Earthquakes near Bima through history

The one on December 29, 1820 was the deadliest: NOAA records 500 deaths for it. NOAA’s list of significant earthquakes has 10 here, back to 1815. NOAA records deaths in 6 of the events here, 60,695 in all. The latest on NOAA’s list is a magnitude 6.6 on November 8, 2009 (29 km NNW of Bima, Indonesia). NOAA’s record here begins on April 10, 1815 with an eruption (Tambora). 4 of the 10 significant earthquakes NOAA lists here came before 1927. NOAA lists 3 tsunamis that began within 100 km of Bima, and 2 from elsewhere that reached it with deaths or a metre of water or more. The highest water NOAA records here was 15 m, on August 19, 1977. The deadliest here came on August 19, 1977 from a magnitude 8.3 earthquake (Sunda Islands): NOAA’s runup records count 189 deaths within 100 km of Bima. NOAA lists one significant eruption of one volcano within 100 km of Bima. The largest was Tambora on April 10, 1815, at 7 on the volcanic explosivity index. It killed 60,000 people by NOAA’s count.

• November 8, 2009Earthquake · M 6.629 km NNW of Bima, Indonesia · 2 deaths (NOAA)USGS · NOAA NCEI
• August 19, 1977Tsunami · 15 m hereSunda Islands · 189 deaths here (NOAA)NOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
• November 28, 1836Earthquake · M 7.5 (est.)NOAA NCEI
• December 29, 1820Earthquake · M 7.5 (est.)Sulawesi: Makasar · 500 deaths (NOAA)NOAA NCEI
• April 10, 1815Eruption · VEI 7Tambora · 60,000 deaths (NOAA)NOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
• April 10, 1815Tsunami · 4 m hereTamboraNOAA NCEI

• An event counts for Bima 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