Earthquakes near Purwodadi through history

NOAA’s list of significant earthquakes has 4 here, back to 1587. NOAA records deaths in 27 of the events here, 5,541 in all. The latest on NOAA’s list is an earthquake on December 12, 1890 (Java: Pati). NOAA’s record here begins in 1587 with an eruption (Merapi). NOAA lists 28 significant eruptions of one volcano within 100 km of Purwodadi. The largest was Merapi in 1587, at 4 on the volcanic explosivity index. The deadliest was Merapi on August 4, 1672, which killed 3,000 people by NOAA’s count.

• April 14, 2023Earthquake · M 7.0Java, IndonesiaUSGS
• December 12, 1890EarthquakeJava: PatiNOAA NCEI
• January 4, 1840Earthquake · M 7.0 (est.)Java: PurworejoNOAA NCEI
• August 4, 1672Eruption · VEI 3Merapi · 3,000 deaths (NOAA)NOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
• 1587Eruption · VEI 4MerapiNOAA NCEI · Wikipedia

• An event counts for Purwodadi 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