Earthquakes near Taitung, 1927–2026

The deadliest was not the strongest: a magnitude 7.1 on April 20, 1935 (14 km N of Taichung, Taiwan), for which NOAA records 3,276 deaths. 33 earthquakes here in these years are on NOAA’s list of significant earthquakes. NOAA records deaths in 21 of the events here, 6,372 in all. The latest on NOAA’s list is a magnitude 6 on January 20, 2025 (10 km NE of Yujing, Taiwan). NOAA lists one tsunami that began within 100 km of Taitung. It reached 0.05 m, on July 23, 1978.

• January 20, 2025Earthquake · M 6.010 km NE of Yujing, TaiwanUSGS · NOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
• September 20, 1999Earthquake · M 7.721 km S of Puli, Taiwan · 2,297 deaths (NOAA)USGS · NOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
• July 23, 1978Tsunami · 0.05 m highTaiwanNOAA NCEI
• November 24, 1951Earthquake · M 7.8TaiwanUSGS
• April 20, 1935Earthquake · M 7.114 km N of Taichung, Taiwan · 3,276 deaths (NOAA)USGS · NOAA NCEI · Wikipedia

• An event counts for Taitung 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