Van

Earthquakes near Van through history

From 1900 to October 19, 2026, USGS recorded 4 earthquakes of magnitude 6 or more within 100 km of Van, or 200 km for magnitude 7 and above. 3 of them reached magnitude 7 or more; the strongest was a magnitude 7.3 on November 24, 1976 (Muradiye).

Open the live map

The last 30 days · as of

USGS recorded no earthquake of magnitude 4.5 or more within 100 km of Van in the last 30 days.

Live
Open the live map

What the record holds

It was also the deadliest: NOAA records 5,000 deaths for it. NOAA’s list of significant earthquakes has 20 here, back to 1111. NOAA records deaths in 12 of the events here, 11,028 in all. The latest on NOAA’s list is a magnitude 5.4 on June 25, 2020 (14 km SSW of Özalp, Turkey). NOAA’s record here begins in 1111 with an earthquake (Van). It grows thinner going back: 13 of the 20 significant earthquakes NOAA lists here are from 1927 on.

The events

Good to know

  • An event counts for Van 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