Earthquakes near Seattle, 1927–2026

The deadliest was not the strongest: a magnitude 6.7 on April 13, 1949 (4 km WNW of Roy, Washington), for which NOAA records 8 deaths. 3 earthquakes here in these years are on NOAA’s list of significant earthquakes. NOAA records deaths in 3 of the events here, 16 in all. NOAA lists 2 tsunamis that began within 60 mi of Seattle. The highest water NOAA records here was 2.4 m, on April 16, 1949.

• February 28, 2001Earthquake · M 6.8The 2001 Nisqually, Washington Earthquake · one death (NOAA)USGS · NOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
• April 16, 1949Tsunami · 2.4 m herePuget Sound, WaNOAA NCEI
• April 13, 1949Earthquake · M 6.74 km WNW of Roy, Washington · 8 deaths (NOAA)USGS · NOAA NCEI · Wikipedia

• An event counts for Seattle 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