Kingston

Earthquakes near Kingston through history

From 1900 to October 19, 2026, USGS recorded 2 earthquakes of magnitude 6 or more within 100 km of Kingston, or 200 km for magnitude 7 and above. One stands far above the rest: an estimated magnitude 7.8 on June 14, 1899. The next strongest reached 6.2.

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The last 30 days · as of

USGS recorded no earthquake of magnitude 4.5 or more within 100 km of Kingston in the last 30 days.

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What the record holds

The deadliest was not the strongest: an earthquake on June 7, 1692 (Port Royal), for which NOAA records 3,000 deaths. NOAA’s list of significant earthquakes has 16 here, back to 1667. NOAA records deaths in 2 of the events here, 4,000 in all. The latest on NOAA’s list is a magnitude 4.7 on November 12, 1988 (St Andrew, Jacks Hill). NOAA’s record here begins in 1667 with an earthquake. NOAA lists 5 tsunamis that began within 100 km of Kingston. The highest water NOAA records here was 2.5 m, on January 14, 1907. The deadliest, on June 7, 1692, killed 2,000 people here by NOAA’s runup records.

The events

Good to know

  • An event counts for Kingston 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

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