Okayama

Earthquakes near Okayama through history

From 1900 to October 19, 2026, USGS recorded 5 earthquakes of magnitude 6 or more within 100 km of Okayama, or 200 km for magnitude 7 and above. The strongest on either list was a magnitude 8.4, twice: on October 28, 1707 (Nankaido) and on December 24, 1854 (Nankaido).

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The last 30 days · as of

USGS recorded no earthquake of magnitude 4.5 or more within 100 km of Okayama in the last 30 days.

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What the record holds

The deadliest was not the strongest: a magnitude 6.9 on January 16, 1995 (8 km S of Akashi, Japan), for which NOAA records 6,434 deaths. NOAA’s list of significant earthquakes has 13 here, back to AD 701. NOAA records deaths in 8 of the events here, 15,287 in all. The latest on NOAA’s list is a magnitude 6.2 on October 21, 2016 (6 km S of Kurayoshi, Japan). NOAA’s record here begins on May 12, 701 with an earthquake (Kyoto Prefecture). It grows thinner going back: 5 of the 13 significant earthquakes NOAA lists here are from 1927 on. NOAA lists 2 tsunamis that began within 100 km of Okayama, and 7 from elsewhere that reached it with deaths or a metre of water or more. The highest water NOAA records here was 7 m, on February 3, 1605. The deadliest here came on August 3, 1361 from a magnitude 8.4 earthquake (Nankaido): NOAA’s runup records count 60 deaths within 100 km of Okayama.

The events

Good to know

  • An event counts for Okayama 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

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