Earthquakes near Nara-shi through history

The deadliest was not the strongest: an estimated magnitude 8.2 on January 18, 1586 (Ise Bay), for which NOAA records 8,000 deaths. NOAA’s list of significant earthquakes has 39 here, back to AD 684. NOAA records deaths in 20 of the events here, 47,295 in all. The latest on NOAA’s list is a magnitude 5.5 on June 17, 2018 (near the south coast of western Honshu, Japan). NOAA’s record here begins on May 12, 701 with an earthquake (Kyoto Prefecture). It grows thinner going back: 10 of the 39 significant earthquakes NOAA lists here are from 1927 on. NOAA lists 7 tsunamis that began within 100 km of Nara-shi, and 16 from elsewhere that reached it with deaths or a metre of water or more. The highest water NOAA records here was 21 m, on December 23, 1854. The deadliest here came on September 20, 1498 from a magnitude 8.3 earthquake (Enshunada Sea): NOAA’s runup records count 5,000 deaths within 100 km of Nara-shi.

• June 17, 2018Earthquake · M 5.5near the south coast of western Honshu, Japan · 5 deaths (NOAA)USGS · NOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
• December 23, 1854Tsunami · 21 m hereEnshunada Sea · 102 deaths here (NOAA)NOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
• January 18, 1586Earthquake · M 8.2 (est.)Ise Bay · 8,000 deaths (NOAA)NOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
• September 20, 1498Tsunami · 10 m hereEnshunada Sea · 5,000 deaths here (NOAA)NOAA NCEI
• December 17, 1096Earthquake · M 8.4 (est.)Enshunada · 400 deaths (NOAA)NOAA NCEI
• August 26, 887Earthquake · M 8.6 (est.)NankaidoNOAA NCEI
• May 12, 701Earthquake · M 7.0 (est.)Kyoto PrefectureNOAA NCEI

• An event counts for Nara-shi 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