Earthquakes near Shūnan, 1927–2026

The deadliest was not the strongest: a magnitude 7 on April 15, 2016 (6 km ESE of Kumamoto, Japan), for which NOAA records 273 deaths. 4 earthquakes here in these years are on NOAA’s list of significant earthquakes. NOAA records deaths in 2 of the events here, 275 in all. NOAA lists 2 tsunamis from elsewhere that reached the coast within 100 km of Shūnan with deaths or a metre of water or more. The highest water NOAA records here was 3.8 m, on May 16, 1968.

• April 15, 2016Earthquake · M 7.06 km ESE of Kumamoto, Japan · 273 deaths (NOAA)USGS · NOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
• May 16, 1968Tsunami · 3.8 m hereOff East Coast Of Honshu IslandNOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
• April 1, 1968Earthquake · M 7.560 km ESE of Nobeoka, Japan · one death (NOAA)USGS · NOAA NCEI · Wikipedia

• An event counts for Shūnan 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