Earthquakes near Santa Cruz, 2017–2026

One earthquake here in these years is on NOAA’s list of significant earthquakes. 2020 had the most magnitude 4.5+ earthquakes: 36 of the 122. The latest on NOAA’s list is a magnitude 5.9 on April 8, 2017 (1 km NNW of Mabini, Philippines). NOAA lists one significant eruption of one volcano within 100 km of Santa Cruz. The largest was Taal on January 12, 2020, at 4 on the volcanic explosivity index. It killed 39 people by NOAA’s count.

• July 23, 2021Earthquake · M 6.715 km S of Hukay, PhilippinesUSGS
• December 24, 2020Earthquake · M 6.32 km ESE of Calatagan, PhilippinesUSGS
• January 12, 2020Eruption · VEI 4Taal · 39 deaths (NOAA)NOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
• April 8, 2017Earthquake · M 5.91 km NNW of Mabini, PhilippinesUSGS · NOAA NCEI

• An event counts for Santa Cruz 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 are its ComCat catalogue’s earthquakes of magnitude 4.5 or more, aftershocks included.
• 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