Earthquakes near Yogyakarta, 1927–2026

The deadliest was not the strongest: a magnitude 6.3 on May 26, 2006 (10 km E of Pundong, Indonesia), for which NOAA records 6,234 deaths. 3 earthquakes here in these years are on NOAA’s list of significant earthquakes. NOAA records deaths in 29 of the events here, 8,888 in all. The latest on NOAA’s list is a magnitude 4.5 on April 18, 2018 (24 km SSE of Buaran, Indonesia). NOAA lists one tsunami from elsewhere that reached the coast within 100 km of Yogyakarta with deaths or a metre of water or more. The highest water NOAA records here was 5.99 m, on July 17, 2006. The deadliest here came on July 17, 2006 from a magnitude 7.7 earthquake (South Of Java): NOAA’s runup records count 59 deaths within 100 km of Yogyakarta. NOAA lists 26 significant eruptions of 2 volcanoes within 100 km of Yogyakarta. The largest was Merapi on October 26, 2010, at 4 on the volcanic explosivity index. It killed 367 people by NOAA’s count.

• April 18, 2018Earthquake · M 4.524 km SSE of Buaran, Indonesia · 3 deaths (NOAA)USGS · NOAA NCEI
• October 26, 2010Eruption · VEI 4Merapi · 367 deaths (NOAA)NOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
• July 17, 2006Tsunami · 5.99 m hereSouth Of Java · 59 deaths here (NOAA)NOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
• May 26, 2006Earthquake · M 6.310 km E of Pundong, Indonesia · 6,234 deaths (NOAA)USGS · NOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
• May 25, 2001Earthquake · M 6.311 km NW of Srandakan, IndonesiaUSGS
• July 23, 1943Earthquake · M 7.487 km SSW of Srandakan, Indonesia · 213 deaths (NOAA)USGS · NOAA NCEI · Wikipedia

• An event counts for Yogyakarta 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