Earthquakes near La Romana through history

It was also the deadliest: NOAA records 1,790 deaths for it. NOAA’s list of significant earthquakes has 9 here, back to 1502. NOAA records deaths in 6 of the events here, 2,062 in all. The latest on NOAA’s list is a magnitude 4.4 on November 1, 1989 (Mona Passage). NOAA’s record here begins in 1502 with an earthquake (Santo Domingo). It grows thinner going back: 5 of the 9 significant earthquakes NOAA lists here are from 1927 on. NOAA lists 3 tsunamis that began within 100 km of La Romana, and one from elsewhere that reached it with deaths or a metre of water or more. The highest water NOAA records here was 3.7 m, on November 1, 1755. The deadliest, on August 29, 1916, killed 43 people here by NOAA’s runup records.

• November 1, 1989Earthquake · M 4.4Mona PassageNOAA NCEI
• August 4, 1946Earthquake · M 7.816 km NNW of Miches, Dominican Republic · 1,790 deaths (NOAA)USGS · NOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
• October 11, 1918Earthquake · M 7.124 km NNW of San Antonio, Puerto Rico · 144 deaths (NOAA)USGS · NOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
• August 29, 1916TsunamiSanto Domingo · 43 deaths here (NOAA)NOAA NCEI
• November 1, 1755Tsunami · 3.7 m hereLisbonNOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
• 1502EarthquakeSanto DomingoNOAA NCEI

• An event counts for La Romana 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