Earthquakes near Stockton, 1927–2026

The deadliest was not the strongest: a magnitude 6 on August 24, 2014 (The 2014 South Napa, California Earthquake), for which NOAA records one death. 5 earthquakes here in these years are on NOAA’s list of significant earthquakes. NOAA lists one tsunami from elsewhere that reached the coast within 60 mi of Stockton with deaths or a metre of water or more. The highest water NOAA records here was 1.37 m, on March 28, 1964.

• August 24, 2014Earthquake · M 6.0The 2014 South Napa, California Earthquake · one death (NOAA)USGS · NOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
• April 24, 1984Earthquake · M 6.2The 1984 Morgan Hill, California EarthquakeUSGS · NOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
• March 28, 1964Tsunami · 1.37 m herePrince William Sound, AkNOAA NCEI · Wikipedia

• An event counts for Stockton 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