Earthquakes near Lhokseumawe through history

The deadliest was not the strongest: a magnitude 6.1 on July 2, 2013 (61 km S of Bireun, Indonesia), for which NOAA records 48 deaths. NOAA’s list of significant earthquakes has 4 here, back to 1816. NOAA records deaths in 2 of the events here, 62 in all. NOAA’s record here begins on May 1, 1816 with an earthquake (Penang Island). NOAA lists 2 tsunamis that began within 100 km of Lhokseumawe, and one from elsewhere that reached it with deaths or a metre of water or more. The highest water NOAA records here was 2.9 m, on December 26, 2004.

• July 2, 2013Earthquake · M 6.161 km S of Bireun, Indonesia · 48 deaths (NOAA)USGS · NOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
• December 26, 2004Tsunami · 2.9 m hereOff W. Coast Of SumatraNOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
• September 19, 1936Earthquake · M 7.186 km WSW of Pangkalan Brandan, IndonesiaUSGS
• September 29, 1837Earthquake · M 7.3 (est.)Banda AtjehNOAA NCEI
• May 1, 1816EarthquakePenang IslandNOAA NCEI

• An event counts for Lhokseumawe 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