Portland

Earthquakes near Portland through history

USGS recorded no earthquake of magnitude 6 or more within 60 mi of Portland from 1900 to October 19, 2026. NOAA’s list of significant earthquakes has 3 within 60 mi of Portland, back to 1861 BCE.

Open the live map

The last 30 days · as of

USGS recorded no earthquake of magnitude 4.5 or more within 60 mi of Portland in the last 30 days.

Live
Open the live map

What the record holds

The strongest was an estimated magnitude 9 on January 27, 1700. The deadliest was not the strongest: a magnitude 5.2 on May 18, 1980 (Mt St Helens), for which NOAA records 61 deaths. NOAA records deaths in 4 of the events here, 64 in all. The latest on NOAA’s list is a magnitude 5.6 on March 25, 1993. NOAA’s record here begins in 1861 BCE with an eruption (St. Helens). NOAA lists 2 tsunamis that began within 60 mi of Portland, and one from elsewhere that reached it with deaths or a metre of water or more. The highest water NOAA records here was 250 m, on May 18, 1980. The deadliest, on January 30, 1965, killed one person here by NOAA’s runup records. NOAA lists 5 significant eruptions of 2 volcanoes within 60 mi of Portland. The largest was St. Helens in 1861 BCE, at 6 on the volcanic explosivity index.

The events

Good to know

  • An event counts for Portland 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

Other places nearby