Earthquakes near Fuji, 1927–2026

It was also the deadliest: NOAA records 1,223 deaths for it. 14 earthquakes here in these years are on NOAA’s list of significant earthquakes. NOAA records deaths in 17 of the events here, 1,568 in all. The ten years with the most magnitude 6+ earthquakes were 1927–1936, with 5 of the 14. The latest on NOAA’s list is a magnitude 4.9 on December 17, 2009 (Honshu: Ito). NOAA lists 5 tsunamis that began within 100 km of Fuji, and 6 from elsewhere that reached it with deaths or a metre of water or more. The highest water NOAA records here was 6.2 m, on December 7, 1944. NOAA lists 8 significant eruptions of 2 volcanoes within 100 km of Fuji. The largest was Izu-Oshima on November 15, 1986, at 3 on the volcanic explosivity index. It killed one person by NOAA’s count.

• December 17, 2009Earthquake · M 4.9Honshu: ItoNOAA NCEI
• November 15, 1986Eruption · VEI 3Izu-Oshima · one death (NOAA)NOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
• December 7, 1944Earthquake · M 8.11944 Toankai Earthquake · 1,223 deaths (NOAA)USGS · NOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
• December 7, 1944Tsunami · 6.2 m hereOff Southeast Coast Kii PeninsulaNOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
• November 25, 1930Earthquake · M 6.95 km WSW of Atami, Japan · 259 deaths (NOAA)USGS · NOAA NCEI

• An event counts for Fuji 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