Earthquakes in Albania through history

The deadliest was not the strongest: an estimated magnitude 6.6 on October 12, 1851 (Vlore (Valona),Berat; Turkey), for which NOAA records 2,000 deaths. NOAA’s list of significant earthquakes has 68 here, back to 59 BCE. NOAA records deaths in 18 of the events here, 3,124 in all. The latest on NOAA’s list is a magnitude 4.5 on January 13, 2024 (7 km NE of Lushnjë, Albania). NOAA’s record here begins in 59 BCE with an earthquake (Dyrrachium). It grows thinner going back: 26 of the 68 significant earthquakes NOAA lists here are from 1927 on. NOAA lists 15 tsunamis that began in or off Albania. The highest of them reached 0.66 m, on October 12, 1851.

• January 13, 2024Earthquake · M 4.57 km NE of Lushnjë, Albania · one death (NOAA)USGS · NOAA NCEI
• November 26, 1920Earthquake · M 6.23 km SE of Tepelenë, Albania · 200 deaths (NOAA)USGS · NOAA NCEI
• February 18, 1911Earthquake · M 6.617 km NNW of Bilisht, AlbaniaUSGS · NOAA NCEI
• June 14, 1893Earthquake · M 7.5 (est.)Himara, Dhermi, Kuc, Kudhesi, Vlore, KaninaNOAA NCEI
• December 4, 1866Earthquake · M 6.7 (est.)NOAA NCEI
• October 17, 1851EarthquakeBerat · 400 deaths (NOAA)NOAA NCEI
• October 12, 1851Earthquake · M 6.6 (est.)Vlore (Valona),Berat; Turkey · 2,000 deaths (NOAA)NOAA NCEI
• October 12, 1851Tsunami · 0.66 m highAlbanian CoastsNOAA NCEI
• AD 346Earthquake · M 6.8 (est.)Durres (Dyrrachium)NOAA NCEI
• 59 BCEEarthquake · M 6.6 (est.)DyrrachiumNOAA NCEI

• An event counts for Albania when it began inside its borders, or at sea within 100 km of its coast (so one can count for two neighbours), or further out, up to 300 km, where Albania is the nearest country.
• 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.
• The map frames the box around Albania, its neighbours’ quakes included, so its count runs higher than this page’s.
• 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