Earthquakes near Nobeoka through history

The deadliest was not the strongest: an estimated magnitude 6.9 on September 4, 1596 (Beppu Bay), for which NOAA records 708 deaths. NOAA’s list of significant earthquakes has 30 here, back to AD 744. NOAA records deaths in 29 of the events here, 6,928 in all. The latest on NOAA’s list is a magnitude 6.8 on July 28, 2026 (The 2026 Kumamoto Region, Japan Earthquake). NOAA’s record here begins in December 1331 with an eruption (Asosan). It grows thinner going back: 19 of the 30 significant earthquakes NOAA lists here are from 1927 on. NOAA lists 19 tsunamis that began within 100 km of Nobeoka, and 6 from elsewhere that reached it with deaths or a metre of water or more. The highest water NOAA records here was 8 m, on September 4, 1596. The deadliest here came on May 21, 1792 from a magnitude 6.4 earthquake (Shimabara Bay, Kyushu Island): NOAA’s runup records count 4,000 deaths within 100 km of Nobeoka. NOAA lists 16 significant eruptions of one volcano within 100 km of Nobeoka. The largest was Asosan in December 1872, at 3 on the volcanic explosivity index. It killed 4 people by NOAA’s count.

• July 28, 2026Earthquake · M 6.8The 2026 Kumamoto Region, Japan Earthquake · 38 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
• December 1872Eruption · VEI 3Asosan · 4 deaths (NOAA)NOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
• May 21, 1792Tsunami · 3.6 m hereShimabara Bay, Kyushu Island · 4,000 deaths here (NOAA)NOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
• September 4, 1596Earthquake · M 6.9 (est.)Beppu Bay · 708 deaths (NOAA)NOAA NCEI
• September 4, 1596Tsunami · 8 m hereBeppu Bay, Kyushu · 708 deaths here (NOAA)NOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
• December 1331Eruption · VEI 2AsosanNOAA NCEI · Wikipedia

• An event counts for Nobeoka 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