Earthquakes near San José, Costa Rica, 1927–2026

The deadliest of them was a magnitude 7.6 on April 22, 1991 (34 km S of Limón, Costa Rica), for which NOAA records 90 deaths. 17 earthquakes here in these years are on NOAA’s list of significant earthquakes. NOAA records deaths in 18 of the events here, 322 in all. The ten years with the most magnitude 6+ earthquakes were 1937–1946, with 8 of the 29. The latest on NOAA’s list is a magnitude 6.5 on November 13, 2017 (18 km W of Parrita, Costa Rica). NOAA lists 2 tsunamis that began within 100 km of San José, Costa Rica, and one from elsewhere that reached it with deaths or a metre of water or more. The highest water NOAA records here was 1 m, on March 25, 1990. The deadliest here came on April 22, 1991 from a magnitude 7.6 earthquake (Limon, Pandora): NOAA’s runup records count 3 deaths within 100 km of San José, Costa Rica. NOAA lists 7 significant eruptions of 2 volcanoes within 100 km of San José, Costa Rica. The largest was Irazu on March 17, 1963, at 3 on the volcanic explosivity index. It killed 15 people by NOAA’s count.

• November 13, 2017Earthquake · M 6.518 km W of Parrita, Costa Rica · 2 deaths (NOAA)USGS · NOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
• September 5, 2012Earthquake · M 7.611 km ENE of Hojancha, Costa Rica · 2 deaths (NOAA)USGS · NOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
• April 22, 1991Earthquake · M 7.634 km S of Limón, Costa Rica · 90 deaths (NOAA)USGS · NOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
• April 22, 1991Tsunami · 3 m highLimon, Pandora · 3 deaths here (NOAA)NOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
• March 25, 1990Tsunami · 1 m hereCosta RicaNOAA NCEI
• March 17, 1963Eruption · VEI 3Irazu · 15 deaths (NOAA)NOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
• December 21, 1939Earthquake · M 7.64 km WNW of Atenas, Costa RicaUSGS

• An event counts for San José, Costa Rica 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