Tapachula

Earthquakes near Tapachula through history

From 1900 to October 19, 2026, USGS recorded 46 earthquakes of magnitude 6 or more within 100 km of Tapachula, or 200 km for magnitude 7 and above. 15 of them reached magnitude 7 or more; the strongest was a magnitude 8.2 on September 8, 2017 (2017 Tehuantepec, Mexico Earthquake).

Open the live map

The last 30 days · as of

USGS recorded one earthquake of magnitude 4.5 or more within 100 km of Tapachula in the last 30 days.

The latest: magnitude 4.8 on October 16 (7 km WSW of Soconusco, Mexico).

Live
Open the live map

What the record holds

It was also the deadliest: NOAA records 98 deaths for it. NOAA’s list of significant earthquakes has 23 here, back to 1717. NOAA records deaths in 15 of the events here, 12,805 in all. The latest on NOAA’s list is a magnitude 7.3 on July 17, 2026 (60 km WSW of Puerto Madero, Mexico). NOAA’s record here begins on September 29, 1717 with an earthquake (Antigua). 10 of the 23 significant earthquakes NOAA lists here came before 1927. NOAA lists 2 tsunamis that began within 100 km of Tapachula, and one from elsewhere that reached it with deaths or a metre of water or more. The highest water NOAA records here was 2 m, on September 8, 2017. NOAA lists 4 significant eruptions of one volcano within 100 km of Tapachula. The largest was Santa Maria on October 25, 1902, at 6 on the volcanic explosivity index. It killed 10,000 people by NOAA’s count.

The events

Good to know

  • An event counts for Tapachula 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

Other places nearby