Earthquakes near Concepción through history

The deadliest was not the strongest: a magnitude 7.9 on January 25, 1939 (26 km WNW of San Carlos, Chile), for which NOAA records 30,000 deaths. NOAA’s list of significant earthquakes has 23 here, back to 1570. NOAA records deaths in 13 of the events here, 35,022 in all. The latest on NOAA’s list is a magnitude 7.1 on March 25, 2012 (23 km NE of Constitución, Chile). NOAA’s record here begins on February 8, 1570 with an earthquake (Old Concepcion). It grows thinner going back: 12 of the 23 significant earthquakes NOAA lists here are from 1927 on. NOAA lists 10 tsunamis that began within 100 km of Concepción, and 14 from elsewhere that reached it with deaths or a metre of water or more. The highest water NOAA records here was 24 m, on February 20, 1835. The deadliest, on February 8, 1570, killed 2,000 people here by NOAA’s runup records.

• March 25, 2012Earthquake · M 7.123 km NE of Constitución, Chile · one death (NOAA)USGS · NOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
• February 27, 2010Earthquake · M 8.82010 Maule, Chile Earthquake · 558 deaths (NOAA)USGS · NOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
• May 22, 1960Earthquake · M 9.51960 Great Chilean Earthquake (Valdivia Earthquake) · 2,226 deaths (NOAA)USGS · NOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
• January 25, 1939Earthquake · M 7.926 km WNW of San Carlos, Chile · 30,000 deaths (NOAA)USGS · NOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
• February 20, 1835Tsunami · 24 m hereCentral Chile · one death here (NOAA)NOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
• February 8, 1570Earthquake · M 8.3 (est.)Old Concepcion · 2,000 deaths (NOAA)NOAA NCEI
• February 8, 1570TsunamiCentral Chile · 2,000 deaths here (NOAA)NOAA NCEI

• An event counts for Concepción 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