Earthquakes near Suzhou through history

The deadliest was not the strongest: a magnitude 5.8 on July 19, 1928 (Sichuan Province), for which NOAA records 6 deaths. NOAA’s list of significant earthquakes has 3 here, back to AD 999. NOAA’s record here begins in October 999 with an earthquake (Jiangsu Province: Changzhou). NOAA lists one tsunami that began within 100 km of Suzhou, and 2 from elsewhere that reached it with deaths or a metre of water or more. The highest water NOAA records here was 1.7 m, on December 18, 1867.

• July 19, 1928Earthquake · M 5.8Sichuan Province · 6 deaths (NOAA)NOAA NCEI
• December 1, 1921Earthquake · M 6.620 km WNW of Zhicheng, ChinaUSGS
• December 18, 1867Tsunami · 1.7 m hereE. China SeaNOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
• October 999Earthquake · M 5.5 (est.)Jiangsu Province: ChangzhouNOAA NCEI

• An event counts for Suzhou 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