Earthquakes near Padang through history

The deadliest was not the strongest: a magnitude 7.6 on September 30, 2009 (30 km WSW of Pariaman, Indonesia), for which NOAA records 1,117 deaths. NOAA’s list of significant earthquakes has 16 here, back to 1797. NOAA records deaths in 10 of the events here, 1,741 in all. The latest on NOAA’s list is a magnitude 5.2 on July 21, 2018 (22 km SE of Solok, Indonesia). NOAA’s record here begins on February 10, 1797 with an earthquake. 7 of the 16 significant earthquakes NOAA lists here came before 1927. NOAA lists 2 tsunamis that began within 100 km of Padang, and 2 from elsewhere that reached it with deaths or a metre of water or more. The highest water NOAA records here was 4 m, on August 27, 1883. The deadliest here came on February 10, 1797 from a magnitude 8 earthquake (Sw. Sumatra): NOAA’s runup records count 300 deaths within 100 km of Padang. NOAA lists 5 significant eruptions of one volcano within 100 km of Padang. The largest was Marapi in January 1975, at 2 on the volcanic explosivity index. It killed 80 people by NOAA’s count.

• July 21, 2018Earthquake · M 5.222 km SE of Solok, Indonesia · one death (NOAA)USGS · NOAA NCEI
• September 30, 2009Earthquake · M 7.630 km WSW of Pariaman, Indonesia · 1,117 deaths (NOAA)USGS · NOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
• January 1975Eruption · VEI 2Marapi · 80 deaths (NOAA)NOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
• August 27, 1883Tsunami · 4 m hereKrakatauNOAA NCEI
• November 24, 1833Earthquake · M 8.3 (est.)Sumatra: BengkuluNOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
• February 10, 1797Earthquake · M 8.0 (est.)300 deaths (NOAA)NOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
• February 10, 1797TsunamiSw. Sumatra · 300 deaths here (NOAA)NOAA NCEI · Wikipedia

• An event counts for Padang 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