Earthquakes near Tehran through history

The deadliest was not the strongest: an earthquake on July 15, 850 (Rey (Ray)), for which NOAA records 45,000 deaths. NOAA’s list of significant earthquakes has 25 here, back to 401 BCE. NOAA records deaths in 12 of the events here, 66,316 in all. The latest on NOAA’s list is a magnitude 4.6 on May 7, 2020 (Tehran, Damavand). NOAA’s record here begins in 401 BCE with an earthquake (Rey,Eivan-E-Kay). It grows thinner going back: 8 of the 25 significant earthquakes NOAA lists here are from 1927 on.

• May 7, 2020Earthquake · M 4.6Tehran, Damavand · 2 deaths (NOAA)USGS · NOAA NCEI
• April 20, 1608Earthquake · M 7.6 (est.)Gilan, W Mazandaran · 3,000 deaths (NOAA)NOAA NCEI
• July 15, 850EarthquakeRey (Ray) · 45,000 deaths (NOAA)NOAA NCEI
• 401 BCEEarthquake · M 7.6 (est.)Rey,Eivan-E-KayNOAA NCEI

• An event counts for Tehran 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