Earthquakes near Surabaya, 1927–2026

The deadliest was not the strongest: a magnitude 6.6 on June 19, 1950 (9 km NW of Tuban, Indonesia), for which NOAA records 16 deaths. NOAA records deaths in 23 of the events here, 932 in all. NOAA lists 27 significant eruptions of 3 volcanoes within 100 km of Surabaya. The largest was Kelud on August 31, 1951, at 4 on the volcanic explosivity index. The deadliest was Semeru on May 14, 1981, which killed 372 people by NOAA’s count.

• April 14, 2023Earthquake · M 7.0Java, IndonesiaUSGS
• May 14, 1981Eruption · VEI 3Semeru · 372 deaths (NOAA)NOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
• August 31, 1951Eruption · VEI 4Kelud · 7 deaths (NOAA)NOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
• June 19, 1950Earthquake · M 6.69 km NW of Tuban, Indonesia · 16 deaths (NOAA)USGS · NOAA NCEI

• An event counts for Surabaya 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