Earthquakes near Latacunga, 1927–2026

The deadliest was not the strongest: a magnitude 6.5 on August 5, 1949 (22 km NE of Baños, Ecuador), for which NOAA records 6,000 deaths. 14 earthquakes here in these years are on NOAA’s list of significant earthquakes. NOAA records deaths in 13 of the events here, 11,071 in all. The latest on NOAA’s list is a magnitude 4 on October 29, 2011 (Pomasqui). NOAA lists one tsunami that began within 100 km of Latacunga. It reached 125 m, on October 13, 2000. NOAA lists 10 significant eruptions of 3 volcanoes within 100 km of Latacunga. The largest was Guagua Pichincha on October 5, 1999, at 3 on the volcanic explosivity index. It killed 2 people by NOAA’s count.

• October 29, 2011Earthquake · M 4.0PomasquiNOAA NCEI
• October 13, 2000Tsunami · 125 m highAltar VolcanoNOAA NCEI
• October 5, 1999Eruption · VEI 3Guagua Pichincha · 2 deaths (NOAA)NOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
• March 6, 1987Earthquake · M 7.229 km SSE of Pimampiro, Ecuador · 5,000 deaths (NOAA)USGS · NOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
• August 5, 1949Earthquake · M 6.522 km NE of Baños, Ecuador · 6,000 deaths (NOAA)USGS · NOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
• May 14, 1942Earthquake · M 7.812 km SE of Pedernales, EcuadorUSGS

• An event counts for Latacunga 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