Earthquakes near Çanakkale through history

The deadliest was not the strongest: an estimated magnitude 7 on July 10, 1688 (Izmir), for which NOAA records 16,000 deaths. NOAA’s list of significant earthquakes has 37 here, back to 1301 BCE. NOAA records deaths in 15 of the events here, 26,713 in all. The latest on NOAA’s list is a magnitude 4.3 on March 4, 2024 (Bursa). NOAA’s record here begins in 1301 BCE with a tsunami (Ionian Coasts, Troad). It grows thinner going back: 11 of the 37 significant earthquakes NOAA lists here are from 1927 on. NOAA lists 6 tsunamis that began within 100 km of Çanakkale, and one from elsewhere that reached it with deaths or a metre of water or more. The highest water NOAA records here was 1 m, on February 9, 1893. The deadliest here came on July 21, 365 from a magnitude 8 earthquake (Crete): NOAA’s runup records count 700 deaths within 100 km of Çanakkale.

• March 4, 2024Earthquake · M 4.3Bursa · one death (NOAA)NOAA NCEI
• February 9, 1893Tsunami · 1 m hereSamothraceNOAA NCEI
• July 10, 1688Earthquake · M 7.0 (est.)Izmir · 16,000 deaths (NOAA)NOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
• September 10, 1509Earthquake · M 7.7 (est.)Istanbul · 5,000 deaths (NOAA)NOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
• October 18, 1343Earthquake · M 7.5 (est.)Istanbul (Constantinople)NOAA NCEI
• July 21, 365TsunamiCrete · 700 deaths here (NOAA)NOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
• 1301 BCETsunamiIonian Coasts, TroadNOAA NCEI

• An event counts for Çanakkale 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