Earthquakes near Budta through history

The deadliest was not the strongest: a magnitude 7.9 on August 16, 1976 (19 km WNW of Palimbang, Philippines), for which NOAA records 8,000 deaths. NOAA’s list of significant earthquakes has 24 here, back to 1636. NOAA records deaths in 11 of the events here, 8,780 in all. The latest on NOAA’s list is a magnitude 7.8 on June 7, 2026 (25 km SW of Kablalan, Philippines). NOAA’s record here begins on December 21, 1636 with an earthquake (Mindanao: Illana Bay). It grows thinner going back: 16 of the 24 significant earthquakes NOAA lists here are from 1927 on. NOAA lists 2 tsunamis that began within 100 km of Budta, and 2 from elsewhere that reached it with deaths or a metre of water or more. The highest water NOAA records here was 9 m, on August 16, 1976. The deadliest here came on August 16, 1976 from a magnitude 8 earthquake (Moro Gulf): NOAA’s runup records count 1,884 deaths within 100 km of Budta. NOAA lists one significant eruption of one volcano within 100 km of Budta. The largest was Ragang on January 16, 1873, at 2 on the volcanic explosivity index.

• June 7, 2026Earthquake · M 7.825 km SW of Kablalan, Philippines · 107 deaths (NOAA)USGS · NOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
• August 16, 1976Earthquake · M 7.919 km WNW of Palimbang, Philippines · 8,000 deaths (NOAA)USGS · NOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
• August 16, 1976Tsunami · 9 m hereMoro Gulf · 1,884 deaths here (NOAA)NOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
• August 15, 1918Earthquake · M 8.31918 Mindanao, Philippines Earthquake · 52 deaths (NOAA)USGS · NOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
• January 16, 1873Eruption · VEI 2RagangNOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
• December 21, 1636EarthquakeMindanao: Illana BayNOAA NCEI

• An event counts for Budta 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