Chiayi City

Earthquakes near Chiayi City through history

From 1900 to October 19, 2026, USGS recorded 61 earthquakes of magnitude 6 or more within 100 km of Chiayi City, or 200 km for magnitude 7 and above. 28 of them reached magnitude 7 or more; the strongest was a magnitude 8.2 on June 5, 1920 (1920 Hualien, Taiwan Earthquake).

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The last 30 days · as of

USGS recorded no earthquake of magnitude 4.5 or more within 100 km of Chiayi City in the last 30 days.

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What the record holds

The deadliest was not the strongest: a magnitude 7.1 on April 20, 1935 (14 km N of Taichung, Taiwan), for which NOAA records 3,276 deaths. NOAA’s list of significant earthquakes has 54 here, back to 1604. NOAA records deaths in 42 of the events here, 14,064 in all. The latest on NOAA’s list is a magnitude 6 on January 20, 2025 (10 km NE of Yujing, Taiwan). NOAA’s record here begins on December 29, 1604 with an earthquake (Fujian Province: Off Coast). It grows thinner going back: 32 of the 54 significant earthquakes NOAA lists here are from 1927 on. NOAA lists 3 tsunamis that began within 100 km of Chiayi City. The highest water NOAA records here was 10 m, on August 9, 1792.

The events

Good to know

  • An event counts for Chiayi City 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

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