Earthquakes near Ishinomaki, 1927–2026

It was also the deadliest: NOAA records 18,423 deaths for it. 31 earthquakes here in these years are on NOAA’s list of significant earthquakes. NOAA records deaths in 11 of the events here, 18,895 in all. The ten years with the most magnitude 6+ earthquakes were 2007–2016, with 21 of the 74. 6 came in the 30 days after the strongest, within 150 km of it. The latest on NOAA’s list is a magnitude 7.3 on March 16, 2022 (57 km ENE of Namie, Japan). NOAA lists 10 tsunamis that began within 100 km of Ishinomaki, and 9 from elsewhere that reached it with deaths or a metre of water or more. The highest water NOAA records here was 38.56 m, on March 11, 2011. The deadliest, on March 11, 2011, killed 12,518 people here by NOAA’s runup records. NOAA lists one significant eruption of one volcano within 100 km of Ishinomaki. The deadliest was Naruko on August 26, 1969, which killed one person by NOAA’s count.

• March 16, 2022Earthquake · M 7.357 km ENE of Namie, Japan · 4 deaths (NOAA)USGS · NOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
• March 11, 2011Earthquake · M 9.12011 Great Tohoku Earthquake, Japan · 18,423 deaths (NOAA)USGS · NOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
• March 11, 2011Tsunami · 38.56 m hereHonshu Island · 12,518 deaths here (NOAA)NOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
• August 26, 1969EruptionNaruko · one death (NOAA)NOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
• November 5, 1938Earthquake · M 7.8105 km E of Iwaki, Japan · one death (NOAA)USGS · NOAA NCEI

• An event counts for Ishinomaki 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