Earthquakes near Osorno, 1927–2026

The deadliest was not the strongest: a magnitude 6.1 on September 26, 2019 (30 km W of Villa La Angostura, Argentina), for which NOAA records one death. One earthquake here in these years is on NOAA’s list of significant earthquakes. NOAA records deaths in 2 of the events here, 3 in all. NOAA lists one tsunami that began within 100 km of Osorno, and 3 from elsewhere that reached it with deaths or a metre of water or more. The highest water NOAA records here was 10 m, on May 22, 1960. The deadliest here came on May 22, 1960 from a magnitude 9.5 earthquake (Southern Chile): NOAA’s runup records count 133 deaths within 100 km of Osorno. NOAA lists 6 significant eruptions of 3 volcanoes within 100 km of Osorno. The largest was Carran-Los Venados on July 26, 1955, at 4 on the volcanic explosivity index. It killed 2 people by NOAA’s count.

• September 26, 2019Earthquake · M 6.130 km W of Villa La Angostura, Argentina · one death (NOAA)USGS · NOAA NCEI
• May 22, 1960Tsunami · 10 m hereSouthern Chile · 133 deaths here (NOAA)NOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
• July 26, 1955Eruption · VEI 4Carran-Los Venados · 2 deaths (NOAA)NOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
• July 26, 1954Earthquake · M 6.39 km NNE of Puerto Varas, ChileUSGS
• March 1, 1934Earthquake · M 6.631 km NNE of Puyehue, ChileUSGS

• An event counts for Osorno 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