Earthquakes near Palu, 2017–2026

It was also the deadliest: NOAA records 4,340 deaths for it. 5 earthquakes here in these years are on NOAA’s list of significant earthquakes. NOAA records deaths in 3 of the events here, 4,344 in all. 2018 had the most magnitude 4.5+ earthquakes: 66 of the 133. 39 came in the 30 days after the strongest, within 150 km of it. The latest on NOAA’s list is a magnitude 6.7 on June 16, 2026 (40 km SE of Palu, Indonesia). NOAA lists one tsunami that began within 100 km of Palu. The highest water NOAA records here was 10.73 m, on September 28, 2018. The deadliest, on September 28, 2018, killed 101 people here by NOAA’s runup records.

• June 16, 2026Earthquake · M 6.740 km SE of Palu, Indonesia · 3 deaths (NOAA)USGS · NOAA NCEI
• September 28, 2018Earthquake · M 7.572 km N of Palu, Indonesia · 4,340 deaths (NOAA)USGS · NOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
• September 28, 2018Tsunami · 10.73 m hereSulawesi · 101 deaths here (NOAA)NOAA NCEI · Wikipedia

• An event counts for Palu 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 are its ComCat catalogue’s earthquakes of magnitude 4.5 or more, aftershocks included.
• 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