Earthquakes near Victoria, British Columbia through history

It was also the deadliest: NOAA records one death for it. NOAA’s list of significant earthquakes has 2 here, back to 1820. NOAA’s record here begins in 1820 with a tsunami (Camano Island, Wa). NOAA lists 3 tsunamis that began within 100 km of Victoria, British Columbia. The highest of them reached 2.44 m, on November 29, 1891.

• June 23, 1946Earthquake · M 7.5The 1946 Vancouver Island, Canada Earthquake · one death (NOAA)USGS · NOAA NCEI
• January 11, 1909Earthquake · M 6.0San Juan Islands, WashingtonUSGS
• November 29, 1891Tsunami · 2.44 m highWashingtonNOAA NCEI
• 1820TsunamiCamano Island, WaNOAA NCEI

• An event counts for Victoria, British Columbia 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