Earthquakes near Copiapó, 1927–2026

The one on October 4, 1983 was the deadliest: NOAA records 5 deaths for it. 6 earthquakes here in these years are on NOAA’s list of significant earthquakes. NOAA records deaths in 2 of the events here, 7 in all. The latest on NOAA’s list is a magnitude 6.7 on April 18, 2002 (31 km SW of Copiapó, Chile). NOAA lists 2 tsunamis that began within 100 km of Copiapó, and 4 from elsewhere that reached it with deaths or a metre of water or more. The highest water NOAA records here was 2.14 m, on March 11, 2011.

• March 11, 2011Tsunami · 2.14 m hereHonshu IslandNOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
• April 18, 2002Earthquake · M 6.731 km SW of Copiapó, ChileUSGS · NOAA NCEI
• October 4, 1983Earthquake · M 7.454 km WSW of Diego de Almagro, Chile · 5 deaths (NOAA)USGS · NOAA NCEI
• August 2, 1946Earthquake · M 6.952 km W of Diego de Almagro, Chile · 2 deaths (NOAA)USGS · NOAA NCEI
• April 18, 1939Earthquake · M 7.4Atacama, ChileUSGS · NOAA NCEI

• An event counts for Copiapó 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