Earthquakes near Chimbote through history

The deadliest was not the strongest: a magnitude 7.9 on May 31, 1970 (34 km SW of Chimbote, Peru), for which NOAA records 66,794 deaths. NOAA’s list of significant earthquakes has 8 here, back to 1619. NOAA records deaths in 7 of the events here, 68,830 in all. The latest on NOAA’s list is a magnitude 4.5 on June 7, 2020 (33 km WSW of Puerto Casma, Peru). NOAA’s record here begins on February 14, 1619 with an earthquake (Trujillo, Piura, Santa). It grows thinner going back: 5 of the 8 significant earthquakes NOAA lists here are from 1927 on. NOAA lists 2 tsunamis that began within 100 km of Chimbote, and 5 from elsewhere that reached it with deaths or a metre of water or more. The highest water NOAA records here was 5 m, on February 21, 1996. The deadliest here came on November 20, 1960 from a magnitude 6.8 earthquake (N. Peru): NOAA’s runup records count 63 deaths within 100 km of Chimbote.

• June 7, 2020Earthquake · M 4.533 km WSW of Puerto Casma, Peru · one death (NOAA)USGS · NOAA NCEI
• February 21, 1996Tsunami · 5 m hereN. Peru · 12 deaths here (NOAA)NOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
• May 31, 1970Earthquake · M 7.934 km SW of Chimbote, Peru · 66,794 deaths (NOAA)USGS · NOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
• November 20, 1960Tsunami · 9 m highN. Peru · 63 deaths here (NOAA)NOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
• June 18, 1678Earthquake · M 8.4 (est.)Lima,Salinas-Huaura,Lima,Callao,ChancayNOAA NCEI
• February 14, 1619Earthquake · M 8.6 (est.)Trujillo, Piura, Santa · 350 deaths (NOAA)NOAA NCEI

• An event counts for Chimbote 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