Earthquakes near Kanoya through history

The deadliest was not the strongest: a magnitude 7 on April 15, 2016 (6 km ESE of Kumamoto, Japan), for which NOAA records 273 deaths. NOAA’s list of significant earthquakes has 21 here, back to 4351 BCE. NOAA records deaths in 21 of the events here, 837 in all. The latest on NOAA’s list is a magnitude 6.8 on January 13, 2025 (15 km SE of Miyazaki, Japan). NOAA’s record here begins in 4351 BCE with an eruption (Kikai). It grows thinner going back: 14 of the 21 significant earthquakes NOAA lists here are from 1927 on. NOAA lists 12 tsunamis that began within 100 km of Kanoya, and 7 from elsewhere that reached it with deaths or a metre of water or more. The highest water NOAA records here was 7.9 m, on December 7, 1944. The deadliest, on April 11, 1781, killed 15 people here by NOAA’s runup records. NOAA lists 25 significant eruptions of 3 volcanoes within 100 km of Kanoya. The largest was Kikai in 4351 BCE, at 7 on the volcanic explosivity index.

• January 13, 2025Earthquake · M 6.815 km SE of Miyazaki, JapanUSGS · NOAA NCEI
• April 15, 2016Earthquake · M 7.06 km ESE of Kumamoto, Japan · 273 deaths (NOAA)USGS · NOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
• December 7, 1944Tsunami · 7.9 m hereOff Southeast Coast Kii PeninsulaNOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
• November 18, 1941Earthquake · M 8.01941 Hyuganada Earthquake · 2 deaths (NOAA)USGS · NOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
• November 2, 1931Earthquake · M 7.958 km ESE of Takanabe, Japan · one death (NOAA)USGS · NOAA NCEI
• April 11, 1781TsunamiSw. Kyushu Island · 15 deaths here (NOAA)NOAA NCEI
• 4351 BCEEruption · VEI 7KikaiNOAA NCEI · Wikipedia

• An event counts for Kanoya 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