Earthquakes near Esmeraldas, 2017–2026

The deadliest was not the strongest: a magnitude 5.8 on March 27, 2022 (7 km SE of Esmeraldas, Ecuador), for which NOAA records one death. 2 earthquakes here in these years are on NOAA’s list of significant earthquakes. 2022 had the most magnitude 4.5+ earthquakes: 8 of the 27. NOAA lists one tsunami that began within 100 km of Esmeraldas. It reached 0.42 m, on April 25, 2025.

• April 25, 2025Earthquake · M 6.319 km NE of Esmeraldas, EcuadorUSGS · NOAA NCEI
• April 25, 2025Tsunami · 0.42 m highEcuadorNOAA NCEI
• March 27, 2022Earthquake · M 5.87 km SE of Esmeraldas, Ecuador · one death (NOAA)USGS · NOAA NCEI

• An event counts for Esmeraldas 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 are its ComCat catalogue’s earthquakes of magnitude 4.5 or more, aftershocks included.
• 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