Earthquakes near Calama, 1927–2026

The deadliest was not the strongest: a magnitude 8 on July 30, 1995 (36 km NNE of Antofagasta, Chile), for which NOAA records 3 deaths. 9 earthquakes here in these years are on NOAA’s list of significant earthquakes. NOAA records deaths in 6 of the events here, 11 in all. The ten years with the most magnitude 6+ earthquakes were 2017–2026, with 6 of the 16. The latest on NOAA’s list is a magnitude 7.4 on July 19, 2024 (41 km ESE of San Pedro de Atacama, Chile). NOAA lists one tsunami that began within 100 km of Calama.

• July 19, 2024Earthquake · M 7.441 km ESE of San Pedro de Atacama, Chile · one death (NOAA)USGS · NOAA NCEI
• July 30, 1995Earthquake · M 8.036 km NNE of Antofagasta, Chile · 3 deaths (NOAA)USGS · NOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
• December 9, 1950Earthquake · M 8.2121 km SSE of San Pedro de Atacama, Chile · one death (NOAA)USGS · NOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
• December 26, 1948TsunamiNorthern ChileNOAA NCEI

• An event counts for Calama 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