Earthquakes near Granada through history

The deadliest was not the strongest: an earthquake on September 22, 1522 (Almeria; Morocco: Fez), for which NOAA records 1,000 deaths. NOAA’s list of significant earthquakes has 9 here, back to 1431. NOAA records deaths in 7 of the events here, 2,412 in all. The latest on NOAA’s list is a magnitude 5 on April 19, 1956. NOAA’s record here begins on April 24, 1431 with an earthquake (Granada). NOAA lists 2 tsunamis that began within 100 km of Granada. The highest water NOAA records here was 5 m, on October 9, 1680.

• April 19, 1956Earthquake · M 5.011 deaths (NOAA)NOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
• March 29, 1954Earthquake · M 7.8Strait of GibraltarUSGS · NOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
• October 9, 1680Earthquake · M 6.8 (est.)Malaga · 70 deaths (NOAA)NOAA NCEI
• October 9, 1680Tsunami · 5 m hereAlboran SeaNOAA NCEI
• September 22, 1522EarthquakeAlmeria; Morocco: Fez · 1,000 deaths (NOAA)NOAA NCEI
• April 24, 1431EarthquakeGranadaNOAA NCEI

• An event counts for Granada 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