Earthquakes near Kishiwada, 1927–2026

The deadliest was not the strongest: a magnitude 6.9 on January 16, 1995 (8 km S of Akashi, Japan), for which NOAA records 6,434 deaths. 10 earthquakes here in these years are on NOAA’s list of significant earthquakes. NOAA records deaths in 7 of the events here, 13,447 in all. The ten years with the most magnitude 6+ earthquakes were 1937–1946, with 5 of the 14. The latest on NOAA’s list is a magnitude 5.5 on June 17, 2018 (near the south coast of western Honshu, Japan). NOAA lists 2 tsunamis that began within 100 km of Kishiwada, and 5 from elsewhere that reached it with deaths or a metre of water or more. The highest water NOAA records here was 9 m, on December 7, 1944. The deadliest here came on December 20, 1946 from a magnitude 8.3 earthquake (S Coast): NOAA’s runup records count 69 deaths within 100 km of Kishiwada.

• June 17, 2018Earthquake · M 5.5near the south coast of western Honshu, Japan · 5 deaths (NOAA)USGS · NOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
• January 16, 1995Earthquake · M 6.98 km S of Akashi, Japan · 6,434 deaths (NOAA)USGS · NOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
• December 20, 1946Earthquake · M 8.3Honshu: S Coast · 1,362 deaths (NOAA)USGS · NOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
• December 20, 1946Tsunami · 6.5 m hereS Coast · 69 deaths here (NOAA)NOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
• December 7, 1944Earthquake · M 8.11944 Toankai Earthquake · 1,223 deaths (NOAA)USGS · NOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
• December 7, 1944Tsunami · 9 m hereOff Southeast Coast Kii PeninsulaNOAA NCEI · Wikipedia

• An event counts for Kishiwada 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