Earthquakes near Honolulu through history
USGS recorded no earthquake of magnitude 6 or more within 60 mi of Honolulu from 1900 to October 19, 2026. NOAA’s list of significant earthquakes has one within 60 mi of Honolulu, back to 1837.
The last 30 days · as of
USGS recorded no earthquake of magnitude 4.5 or more within 60 mi of Honolulu in the last 30 days.
What the record holds
It was an estimated magnitude 7 on February 20, 1871. NOAA records deaths in 2 of the events here, 7 in all. NOAA’s record here begins on February 20, 1871 with an earthquake. NOAA lists one tsunami that began within 60 mi of Honolulu, and 13 from elsewhere that reached it with deaths or a metre of water or more. The highest water NOAA records here was 16.5 m, on April 1, 1946. The deadliest here came on April 1, 1946 from a magnitude 8.6 earthquake (Unimak Island, Ak): NOAA’s runup records count 6 deaths within 60 mi of Honolulu.
The events
Good to know
- An event counts for Honolulu when it began within 60 mi of its centre, or 120 mi 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