Earthquakes near Kobe through history

The deadliest was not the strongest: an estimated magnitude 8.2 on January 18, 1586 (Ise Bay), for which NOAA records 8,000 deaths. NOAA’s list of significant earthquakes has 34 here, back to AD 701. NOAA records deaths in 14 of the events here, 44,011 in all. The latest on NOAA’s list is a magnitude 5.5 on June 17, 2018 (near the south coast of western Honshu, Japan). NOAA’s record here begins on May 12, 701 with an earthquake (Kyoto Prefecture). It grows thinner going back: 9 of the 34 significant earthquakes NOAA lists here are from 1927 on. NOAA lists 6 tsunamis that began within 100 km of Kobe, and 12 from elsewhere that reached it with deaths or a metre of water or more. The highest water NOAA records here was 7 m, on February 3, 1605. The deadliest here came on August 3, 1361 from a magnitude 8.4 earthquake (Nankaido): NOAA’s runup records count 860 deaths within 100 km of Kobe.

• June 17, 2018Earthquake · M 5.5near the south coast of western Honshu, Japan · 5 deaths (NOAA)USGS · NOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
• February 3, 1605Tsunami · 7 m hereNankaidoNOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
• January 18, 1586Earthquake · M 8.2 (est.)Ise Bay · 8,000 deaths (NOAA)NOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
• August 3, 1361TsunamiNankaido · 860 deaths here (NOAA)NOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
• February 22, 1099Earthquake · M 8.4 (est.)NankaidoNOAA NCEI
• August 26, 887Earthquake · M 8.6 (est.)NankaidoNOAA NCEI
• May 12, 701Earthquake · M 7.0 (est.)Kyoto PrefectureNOAA NCEI

• An event counts for Kobe 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