Earthquakes near Tacna through history

The deadliest was not the strongest: an estimated magnitude 8.5 on August 13, 1868 (Arica), for which NOAA records 25,000 deaths. NOAA’s list of significant earthquakes has 29 here, back to 1552. NOAA records deaths in 9 of the events here, 27,402 in all. The latest on NOAA’s list is a magnitude 8.2 on April 1, 2014 (93 km NW of Iquique, Chile). NOAA’s record here begins on July 2, 1552 with an earthquake. 23 of the 29 significant earthquakes NOAA lists here came before 1927. NOAA lists 9 tsunamis that began within 100 km of Tacna, and 11 from elsewhere that reached it with deaths or a metre of water or more. The highest water NOAA records here was 18 m, on August 13, 1868. The deadliest, on November 24, 1604, killed 23 people here by NOAA’s runup records.

• April 1, 2014Earthquake · M 8.293 km NW of Iquique, Chile · 7 deaths (NOAA)USGS · NOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
• August 13, 1868Earthquake · M 8.5 (est.)Arica · 25,000 deaths (NOAA)NOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
• August 13, 1868Tsunami · 18 m hereNorthern ChileNOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
• February 6, 1716Earthquake · M 8.8 (est.)Pueblo De Torata In TacnaNOAA NCEI
• November 24, 1604Earthquake · M 8.5 (est.)Arequipa; Chile: Arica · 174 deaths (NOAA)NOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
• November 24, 1604Tsunami · 5 m highS. Peru · 23 deaths here (NOAA)NOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
• July 2, 1552Earthquake · M 7.6 (est.)NOAA NCEI

• An event counts for Tacna 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