Earthquakes near Miyazaki, 1927–2026

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. 17 earthquakes here in these years are on NOAA’s list of significant earthquakes. NOAA records deaths in 13 of the events here, 316 in all. The ten years with the most magnitude 6+ earthquakes were 1967–1976, with 12 of the 35. The latest on NOAA’s list is a magnitude 6.8 on January 13, 2025 (15 km SE of Miyazaki, Japan). NOAA lists 13 tsunamis that began within 100 km of Miyazaki, and 5 from elsewhere that reached it with deaths or a metre of water or more. The highest water NOAA records here was 3.8 m, on December 20, 1946. NOAA lists 7 significant eruptions of 2 volcanoes within 100 km of Miyazaki. The largest was Aira on October 13, 1955, at 3 on the volcanic explosivity index.

• 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
• October 13, 1955Eruption · VEI 3AiraNOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
• December 20, 1946Tsunami · 3.8 m hereS CoastNOAA 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

• 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