Earthquakes near Yangon through history

The deadliest was not the strongest: a magnitude 7.4 on May 5, 1930 (41 km SW of Nyaunglebin, Myanmar), for which NOAA records 500 deaths. NOAA’s list of significant earthquakes has 7 here, back to 1588. NOAA records deaths in 5 of the events here, 591 in all. The latest on NOAA’s list is a magnitude 4.8 on June 7, 2023 (20 km SSW of Nyaungdon, Myanmar). NOAA’s record here begins in 1588 with an earthquake (Pegu). It grows thinner going back: 5 of the 7 significant earthquakes NOAA lists here are from 1927 on. NOAA lists one tsunami from elsewhere that reached the coast within 100 km of Yangon with deaths or a metre of water or more. The highest water NOAA records here was 1.06 m, on May 5, 1930. The deadliest here came on May 5, 1930 from a magnitude 7.4 earthquake (Myanmar Coast): NOAA’s runup records count 500 deaths within 100 km of Yangon.

• June 7, 2023Earthquake · M 4.820 km SSW of Nyaungdon, Myanmar · 3 deaths (NOAA)USGS · NOAA NCEI
• December 3, 1930Earthquake · M 7.536 km SSW of Pyu, Myanmar · 36 deaths (NOAA)USGS · NOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
• May 5, 1930Earthquake · M 7.441 km SW of Nyaunglebin, Myanmar · 500 deaths (NOAA)USGS · NOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
• May 5, 1930Tsunami · 1.06 m hereMyanmar Coast · 500 deaths here (NOAA)NOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
• 1588EarthquakePeguNOAA NCEI

• An event counts for Yangon 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