Earthquakes near Colima through history

The deadliest was not the strongest: a magnitude 8 on September 19, 1985 (1985 Michoacan, Mexico Earthquake), for which NOAA records 9,500 deaths. NOAA’s list of significant earthquakes has 25 here, back to 1568. NOAA records deaths in 14 of the events here, 14,295 in all. The latest on NOAA’s list is a magnitude 7.6 on September 19, 2022 (35 km SSW of Aguililla, Mexico). NOAA’s record here begins on December 27, 1568 with an earthquake (Cocula,Jalisco). 15 of the 25 significant earthquakes NOAA lists here came before 1927. NOAA lists 9 tsunamis that began within 100 km of Colima, and 4 from elsewhere that reached it with deaths or a metre of water or more. The highest water NOAA records here was 25 m, on November 14, 1816. The deadliest, on June 22, 1932, killed 75 people here by NOAA’s runup records. NOAA lists 4 significant eruptions of one volcano within 100 km of Colima. The largest was Colima on February 5, 1818, at 4 on the volcanic explosivity index.

• September 19, 2022Earthquake · M 7.635 km SSW of Aguililla, Mexico · 2 deaths (NOAA)USGS · NOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
• September 19, 1985Earthquake · M 8.01985 Michoacan, Mexico Earthquake · 9,500 deaths (NOAA)USGS · NOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
• June 22, 1932Tsunami · 10 m hereCentral Mexico · 75 deaths here (NOAA)NOAA NCEI
• June 3, 1932Earthquake · M 8.11932 Jalisco, Mexico Earthquake · 400 deaths (NOAA)USGS · NOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
• May 31, 1818Earthquake · M 8.2 (est.)Morelos-Guerrero,Mexico City,Guadalajara · 2,000 deaths (NOAA)NOAA NCEI
• February 5, 1818Eruption · VEI 4ColimaNOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
• November 14, 1816Tsunami · 25 m hereCentral MexicoNOAA NCEI
• December 27, 1568Earthquake · M 7.2 (est.)Cocula,Jalisco · 60 deaths (NOAA)NOAA NCEI

• An event counts for Colima 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