Riobamba

Earthquakes near Riobamba through history

From 1900 to October 19, 2026, USGS recorded 11 earthquakes of magnitude 6 or more within 100 km of Riobamba, or 200 km for magnitude 7 and above. 4 of them reached magnitude 7 or more; the strongest on either list was an estimated magnitude 8.3 on February 4, 1797 (Riobamba, Quito, Cuzco; Peru; Colombia).

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The last 30 days · as of

USGS recorded no earthquake of magnitude 4.5 or more within 100 km of Riobamba in the last 30 days.

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What the record holds

It was also the deadliest: NOAA records 40,000 deaths for it. NOAA’s list of significant earthquakes has 26 here, back to 1011 BCE. NOAA records deaths in 19 of the events here, 63,609 in all. The latest on NOAA’s list is a magnitude 7.5 on February 22, 2019 (115 km ESE of Palora, Ecuador). NOAA’s record here begins in 1011 BCE with an eruption (Tungurahua). It grows thinner going back: 9 of the 26 significant earthquakes NOAA lists here are from 1927 on. NOAA lists one tsunami that began within 100 km of Riobamba. It reached 125 m, on October 13, 2000. NOAA lists 15 significant eruptions of 4 volcanoes within 100 km of Riobamba. The largest was Quilotoa in 1280, at 6 on the volcanic explosivity index.

The events

Good to know

  • An event counts for Riobamba 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

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