Earthquakes near Kitami, 1927–2026

It was also the deadliest: NOAA records 33 deaths for it. 8 earthquakes here in these years are on NOAA’s list of significant earthquakes. NOAA records deaths in 6 of the events here, 67 in all. The ten years with the most magnitude 6+ earthquakes were 1957–1966, with 5 of the 15. The latest on NOAA’s list is a magnitude 7 on November 28, 2004 (51 km SW of Nemuro, Japan). NOAA lists 2 tsunamis that began within 100 km of Kitami, and 8 from elsewhere that reached it with deaths or a metre of water or more. The highest water NOAA records here was 10 m, on July 12, 1993. The deadliest, on May 28, 1938, killed one person here by NOAA’s runup records. NOAA lists 2 significant eruptions of one volcano within 100 km of Kitami. The deadliest was Taisetsuzan on July 21, 1958, which killed 2 people by NOAA’s count.

• November 28, 2004Earthquake · M 7.051 km SW of Nemuro, JapanUSGS · NOAA NCEI
• July 12, 1993Tsunami · 10 m hereSea Of JapanNOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
• June 17, 1973Earthquake · M 7.719 km ESE of Nemuro, Japan · 27 deaths (NOAA)USGS · NOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
• July 21, 1958EruptionTaisetsuzan · 2 deaths (NOAA)NOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
• March 4, 1952Earthquake · M 8.11952 Tokachi-Oki Earthquake · 33 deaths (NOAA)USGS · NOAA NCEI
• May 28, 1938Tsunami · 0.9 m hereE. Hokkaido Island · one death here (NOAA)NOAA NCEI

• An event counts for Kitami 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