Earthquakes near Pematangsiantar, 2017–2026

The deadliest was not the strongest: a magnitude 5.9 on September 30, 2022 (41 km NNE of Sibolga, Indonesia), for which NOAA records 2 deaths. One earthquake here in these years is on NOAA’s list of significant earthquakes. 2017 had the most magnitude 4.5+ earthquakes: 9 of the 24. NOAA lists 3 significant eruptions of one volcano within 100 km of Pematangsiantar. The largest was Sinabung on May 7, 2019, at 4 on the volcanic explosivity index.

• August 15, 2026Earthquake · M 6.99 km WNW of Pematangsiantar, IndonesiaUSGS
• September 30, 2022Earthquake · M 5.941 km NNE of Sibolga, Indonesia · 2 deaths (NOAA)USGS · NOAA NCEI
• May 7, 2019Eruption · VEI 4SinabungNOAA NCEI · Wikipedia

• An event counts for Pematangsiantar 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