Earthquakes near Niigata, 1927–2026

The deadliest was not the strongest: a magnitude 7.5 on January 1, 2024 (2024 Noto Peninsula, Japan Earthquake), for which NOAA records 549 deaths. 8 earthquakes here in these years are on NOAA’s list of significant earthquakes. NOAA records deaths in 5 of the events here, 670 in all. The ten years with the most magnitude 6+ earthquakes were 1997–2006, with 4 of the 10. NOAA lists 3 tsunamis that began within 100 km of Niigata, and 2 from elsewhere that reached it with deaths or a metre of water or more. The highest water NOAA records here was 6.34 m, on January 1, 2024. NOAA lists one significant eruption of one volcano within 100 km of Niigata. The deadliest was Bandaisan on May 9, 1938, which killed 2 people by NOAA’s count.

• January 1, 2024Earthquake · M 7.52024 Noto Peninsula, Japan Earthquake · 549 deaths (NOAA)USGS · NOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
• January 1, 2024Tsunami · 6.34 m hereW CoastNOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
• June 16, 1964Earthquake · M 7.627 km NW of Murakami, Japan · 36 deaths (NOAA)USGS · NOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
• May 9, 1938EruptionBandaisan · 2 deaths (NOAA)NOAA NCEI · Wikipedia

• An event counts for Niigata 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