Earthquakes near Siracusa through history

The deadliest was not the strongest: a magnitude 7.1 on December 28, 1908 (The 1908 Messina, Italy Earthquake and Tsunami), for which NOAA records 80,000 deaths. NOAA’s list of significant earthquakes has 27 here, back to 142 BCE. NOAA records deaths in 26 of the events here, 237,034 in all. The latest on NOAA’s list is a magnitude 4.5 on March 4, 2026 (4 km ESE of Catania, Italy). NOAA’s record here begins in 142 BCE with an eruption (Etna). It grows thinner going back: 7 of the 27 significant earthquakes NOAA lists here are from 1927 on. NOAA lists 10 tsunamis that began within 100 km of Siracusa, and one from elsewhere that reached it with deaths or a metre of water or more. The highest water NOAA records here was 12 m, on January 11, 1693. The deadliest here came on December 28, 1908 from a magnitude 7 earthquake (Messina Strait, Ionian Sea): NOAA’s runup records count 27 deaths within 100 km of Siracusa. NOAA lists 25 significant eruptions of one volcano within 100 km of Siracusa. The largest was Etna on June 28, 1329, at 3 on the volcanic explosivity index. The deadliest was Etna in 142 BCE, which killed 40 people by NOAA’s count.

• March 4, 2026Earthquake · M 4.54 km ESE of Catania, ItalyUSGS · NOAA NCEI
• December 28, 1908Earthquake · M 7.1The 1908 Messina, Italy Earthquake and Tsunami · 80,000 deaths (NOAA)USGS · NOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
• December 28, 1908Tsunami · 11.7 m hereMessina Strait, Ionian Sea · 27 deaths here (NOAA)NOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
• September 8, 1905Earthquake · M 7.25 km W of San Nicolò, Italy · 557 deaths (NOAA)USGS · NOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
• January 11, 1693Earthquake · M 7.4 (est.)Sicily, Calabria · 54,000 deaths (NOAA)NOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
• January 11, 1693Tsunami · 12 m hereIsland Of SicilyNOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
• June 28, 1329Eruption · VEI 3EtnaNOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
• 142 BCEEruptionEtna · 40 deaths (NOAA)NOAA NCEI · Wikipedia

• An event counts for Siracusa 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