Earthquakes near Surakarta through history

The deadliest was not the strongest: a magnitude 6.3 on May 26, 2006 (10 km E of Pundong, Indonesia), for which NOAA records 6,234 deaths. NOAA’s list of significant earthquakes has 5 here, back to 1587. NOAA records deaths in 30 of the events here, 11,780 in all. NOAA’s record here begins in 1587 with an eruption (Merapi). 4 of the 5 significant earthquakes NOAA lists here came before 1927. NOAA lists one tsunami that began within 100 km of Surakarta, and 3 from elsewhere that reached it with deaths or a metre of water or more. The highest water NOAA records here was 5.24 m, on July 17, 2006. The deadliest here came on July 17, 2006 from a magnitude 7.7 earthquake (South Of Java): NOAA’s runup records count 3 deaths within 100 km of Surakarta. NOAA lists 28 significant eruptions of one volcano within 100 km of Surakarta. The largest was Merapi in 1587, at 4 on the volcanic explosivity index.

• July 17, 2006Tsunami · 5.24 m hereSouth Of Java · 3 deaths here (NOAA)NOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
• May 26, 2006Earthquake · M 6.310 km E of Pundong, Indonesia · 6,234 deaths (NOAA)USGS · NOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
• July 23, 1943Earthquake · M 7.487 km SSW of Srandakan, Indonesia · 213 deaths (NOAA)USGS · NOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
• September 10, 1926Earthquake · M 7.1138 km SSE of Pundong, IndonesiaUSGS
• 1587Eruption · VEI 4MerapiNOAA NCEI · Wikipedia

• An event counts for Surakarta 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