Earthquakes near Tacloban through history

The deadliest was not the strongest: a magnitude 7.1 on October 15, 2013 (4 km SE of Sagbayan, Philippines), for which NOAA records 222 deaths. NOAA’s list of significant earthquakes has 14 here, back to 1743. NOAA records deaths in 8 of the events here, 480 in all. The latest on NOAA’s list is a magnitude 6.9 on September 30, 2025 (8 km ESE of Calape, Philippines). NOAA’s record here begins in September 1743 with an earthquake (Leyte). 6 of the 14 significant earthquakes NOAA lists here came before 1927. NOAA lists one tsunami that began within 100 km of Tacloban, and 2 from elsewhere that reached it with deaths or a metre of water or more. The highest water NOAA records here was 2 m, on April 21, 1995. The deadliest here came on October 31, 1975 from a magnitude 7.6 earthquake (Philippine Trench): NOAA’s runup records count one death within 100 km of Tacloban.

• September 30, 2025Earthquake · M 6.98 km ESE of Calape, Philippines · 79 deaths (NOAA)USGS · NOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
• October 15, 2013Earthquake · M 7.14 km SE of Sagbayan, Philippines · 222 deaths (NOAA)USGS · NOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
• April 21, 1995Tsunami · 2 m hereSamar IslandNOAA NCEI
• October 31, 1975Tsunami · 3 m highPhilippine Trench · one death here (NOAA)NOAA NCEI
• October 18, 1897Earthquake · M 8.1 (est.)Northern SamarNOAA NCEI
• May 13, 1897Earthquake · M 7.9 (est.)Masbate IslandNOAA NCEI
• September 1743EarthquakeLeyteNOAA NCEI

• An event counts for Tacloban 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