Earthquakes near Miyazaki through history

The deadliest was not the strongest: a magnitude 7 on April 15, 2016 (6 km ESE of Kumamoto, Japan), for which NOAA records 273 deaths. NOAA’s list of significant earthquakes has 24 here, back to AD 764. NOAA records deaths in 25 of the events here, 1,860 in all. The latest on NOAA’s list is a magnitude 6.8 on January 13, 2025 (15 km SE of Miyazaki, Japan). NOAA’s record here begins in AD 764 with an eruption (Aira). It grows thinner going back: 17 of the 24 significant earthquakes NOAA lists here are from 1927 on. NOAA lists 22 tsunamis that began within 100 km of Miyazaki, and 6 from elsewhere that reached it with deaths or a metre of water or more. The highest water NOAA records here was 6 m, on September 9, 1780. The deadliest here came on May 21, 1792 from a magnitude 6.4 earthquake (Shimabara Bay, Kyushu Island): NOAA’s runup records count 1,000 deaths within 100 km of Miyazaki. NOAA lists 24 significant eruptions of 2 volcanoes within 100 km of Miyazaki. The largest was Aira on November 3, 1471, at 5 on the volcanic explosivity index. The deadliest was Aira in AD 764, which killed 80 people by NOAA’s count.

• January 13, 2025Earthquake · M 6.815 km SE of Miyazaki, JapanUSGS · NOAA NCEI
• April 15, 2016Earthquake · M 7.06 km ESE of Kumamoto, Japan · 273 deaths (NOAA)USGS · NOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
• November 18, 1941Earthquake · M 8.01941 Hyuganada Earthquake · 2 deaths (NOAA)USGS · NOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
• November 2, 1931Earthquake · M 7.958 km ESE of Takanabe, Japan · one death (NOAA)USGS · NOAA NCEI
• May 21, 1792Tsunami · 55 m highShimabara Bay, Kyushu Island · 1,000 deaths here (NOAA)NOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
• September 9, 1780Tsunami · 6 m hereSw. Kyushu IslandNOAA NCEI
• November 3, 1471Eruption · VEI 5AiraNOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
• AD 764Eruption · VEI 4Aira · 80 deaths (NOAA)NOAA NCEI · Wikipedia

• An event counts for Miyazaki 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