Earthquakes near Kirishima through history

The deadliest was not the strongest: an estimated magnitude 6.4 on June 30, 744 (Shimabara, Yatsushiro, Higo), for which NOAA records 1,520 deaths. NOAA’s list of significant earthquakes has 21 here, back to AD 744. NOAA records deaths in 23 of the events here, 3,700 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 on June 30, 744 with an earthquake (Shimabara, Yatsushiro, Higo). It grows thinner going back: 13 of the 21 significant earthquakes NOAA lists here are from 1927 on. NOAA lists 14 tsunamis that began within 100 km of Kirishima, and 8 from elsewhere that reached it with deaths or a metre of water or more. The highest water NOAA records here was 15 m, on May 21, 1792. The deadliest here came on May 21, 1792 from a magnitude 6.4 earthquake (Shimabara Bay, Kyushu Island): NOAA’s runup records count 1,343 deaths within 100 km of Kirishima. NOAA lists 24 significant eruptions of 2 volcanoes within 100 km of Kirishima. The largest was Aira on November 3, 1471, at 5 on the volcanic explosivity index.

• January 13, 2025Earthquake · M 6.815 km SE of Miyazaki, JapanUSGS · NOAA NCEI
• 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
• May 21, 1792Tsunami · 15 m hereShimabara Bay, Kyushu Island · 1,343 deaths here (NOAA)NOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
• November 3, 1471Eruption · VEI 5AiraNOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
• June 30, 744Earthquake · M 6.4 (est.)Shimabara, Yatsushiro, Higo · 1,520 deaths (NOAA)NOAA NCEI

• An event counts for Kirishima 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