Earthquakes near San Diego, 1927–2026

It was also the deadliest: NOAA records 3 deaths for it. 4 earthquakes here in these years are on NOAA’s list of significant earthquakes. NOAA records deaths in 2 of the events here, 5 in all. The latest on NOAA’s list is a magnitude 7.2 on April 4, 2010 (The 2010 Sierra El Mayor, B.C., Mexico Earthquake). NOAA lists 2 tsunamis from elsewhere that reached the coast within 60 mi of San Diego with deaths or a metre of water or more. The highest water NOAA records here was 1.2 m, on May 22, 1960.

• April 4, 2010Earthquake · M 7.2The 2010 Sierra El Mayor, B.C., Mexico Earthquake · 2 deaths (NOAA)USGS · NOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
• June 28, 1992Earthquake · M 7.3The 1992 Landers, California Earthquake · 3 deaths (NOAA)USGS · NOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
• May 22, 1960Tsunami · 1.2 m hereSouthern ChileNOAA NCEI · Wikipedia

• An event counts for San Diego 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