Earthquakes near Philadelphia through history

The strongest was an estimated magnitude 5.2 on November 11, 1840 (Philadelphia). NOAA records no deaths for any of them. The latest on NOAA’s list is a magnitude 4.6 on January 16, 1994 (Reading, Felt To Canada). NOAA’s record here begins on November 11, 1840 with an earthquake (Philadelphia). NOAA lists 4 tsunamis that began within 60 mi of Philadelphia. The highest water NOAA records here was 1.8 m, on June 13, 2013.

• June 13, 2013Tsunami · 1.8 m hereNorthwest Atlantic OceanNOAA NCEI
• January 16, 1994Earthquake · M 4.6Reading, Felt To CanadaNOAA NCEI
• November 11, 1840Earthquake · M 5.2 (est.)PhiladelphiaNOAA NCEI

• An event counts for Philadelphia when it began within 60 mi of its centre, or 120 mi 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