Earthquakes near Sukabumi through history

The deadliest was not the strongest: a magnitude 5 on September 18, 2024 (15 km ESE of Banjar, Indonesia), for which NOAA records 2 deaths. NOAA’s list of significant earthquakes has 15 here, back to 1722. NOAA records deaths in 10 of the events here, 3,690 in all. NOAA’s record here begins in October 1722 with an earthquake (Java: Djakarta (Jakarta)). It grows thinner going back: 9 of the 15 significant earthquakes NOAA lists here are from 1927 on. NOAA lists one tsunami that began within 100 km of Sukabumi, and 2 from elsewhere that reached it with deaths or a metre of water or more. The highest water NOAA records here was 2.58 m, on August 27, 1883. NOAA lists 6 significant eruptions of 3 volcanoes within 100 km of Sukabumi. The largest was Papandayan on August 12, 1772, at 3 on the volcanic explosivity index. It killed 2,957 people by NOAA’s count.

• September 18, 2024Earthquake · M 5.015 km ESE of Banjar, Indonesia · 2 deaths (NOAA)USGS · NOAA NCEI
• August 8, 2007Earthquake · M 7.535 km NNE of Rengasdengklok, IndonesiaUSGS
• August 27, 1883Tsunami · 2.58 m hereKrakatauNOAA NCEI
• August 12, 1772Eruption · VEI 3Papandayan · 2,957 deaths (NOAA)NOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
• August 24, 1757Earthquake · M 7.5 (est.)JakartaNOAA NCEI
• October 1722EarthquakeJava: Djakarta (Jakarta)NOAA NCEI

• An event counts for Sukabumi 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