Earthquakes near Sasebo through history

The deadliest was not the strongest: an estimated magnitude 6.4 on May 21, 1792 (Kyusyu Island), for which NOAA records 15,030 deaths. NOAA’s list of significant earthquakes has 10 here, back to AD 744. NOAA records deaths in 14 of the events here, 19,025 in all. The latest on NOAA’s list is a magnitude 7 on April 15, 2016 (6 km ESE of Kumamoto, Japan). NOAA’s record here begins on June 30, 744 with a tsunami (Sw. Kyushu Island). 8 of the 10 significant earthquakes NOAA lists here came before 1927. NOAA lists 6 tsunamis that began within 100 km of Sasebo, and 5 from elsewhere that reached it with deaths or a metre of water or more. The highest water NOAA records here was 55 m, on May 21, 1792. The deadliest here came on June 30, 744 from a magnitude 6.4 earthquake (Sw. Kyushu Island): NOAA’s runup records count 1,520 deaths within 100 km of Sasebo. NOAA lists 5 significant eruptions of one volcano within 100 km of Sasebo. The largest was Unzendake on April 15, 1664, at 2 on the volcanic explosivity index. It killed 30 people by NOAA’s count.

• April 15, 2016Earthquake · M 7.06 km ESE of Kumamoto, Japan · 273 deaths (NOAA)USGS · NOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
• January 12, 1914Earthquake · M 7.1Sakurijima · 63 deaths (NOAA)NOAA NCEI
• November 10, 1909Earthquake · M 7.518 km SE of Honmachi, JapanUSGS · NOAA NCEI
• May 21, 1792Earthquake · M 6.4 (est.)Kyusyu Island · 15,030 deaths (NOAA)NOAA NCEI
• May 21, 1792Tsunami · 55 m hereShimabara Bay, Kyushu Island · 343 deaths here (NOAA)NOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
• April 15, 1664Eruption · VEI 2Unzendake · 30 deaths (NOAA)NOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
• June 30, 744TsunamiSw. Kyushu Island · 1,520 deaths here (NOAA)NOAA NCEI

• An event counts for Sasebo 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