Earthquakes near Van, 2017–2026

It was also the deadliest: NOAA records 10 deaths for it. 2 earthquakes here in these years are on NOAA’s list of significant earthquakes. 2020 had the most magnitude 4.5+ earthquakes: 9 of the 17. The latest on NOAA’s list is a magnitude 5.4 on June 25, 2020 (14 km SSW of Özalp, Turkey).

• June 25, 2020Earthquake · M 5.414 km SSW of Özalp, TurkeyUSGS · NOAA NCEI
• February 23, 2020Earthquake · M 6.037 km ESE of Özalp, Turkey · 10 deaths (NOAA)USGS · NOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
• February 23, 2020Earthquake · M 5.8USGS

• 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 are its ComCat catalogue’s earthquakes of magnitude 4.5 or more, aftershocks included.
• 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