Earthquakes in Algeria through history
From 1900 to October 19, 2026, USGS recorded 9 earthquakes of magnitude 6 or more in or off Algeria. The strongest was a magnitude 7.3 on October 10, 1980 (3 km NNE of Chlef, Algeria).
The last 30 days · as of
USGS recorded no earthquake of magnitude 4.5 or more in the area the map frames in the last 30 days.
What the record holds
The deadliest was not the strongest: an earthquake in May 1716 (Algiers), for which NOAA records 20,000 deaths. NOAA’s list of significant earthquakes has 58 here, back to 1359. NOAA records deaths in 33 of the events here, 39,351 in all. The latest on NOAA’s list is a magnitude 6 on March 18, 2021 (21 km NNE of Bejaïa, Algeria). NOAA’s record here begins on March 3, 1359 with an earthquake (Algiers). It grows thinner going back: 37 of the 58 significant earthquakes NOAA lists here are from 1927 on. NOAA lists 15 tsunamis that began in or off Algeria, and one from elsewhere that reached it with deaths or a metre of water or more. The highest water NOAA records here was 5 m, on January 2, 1365.
The events
- March 18, 2021Earthquake · M 6.021 km NNE of Bejaïa, AlgeriaUSGS · NOAA NCEI
- May 21, 2003Earthquake · M 6.825 km WNW of Dellys, Algeria · 2,287 deaths (NOAA)USGS · NOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
- October 10, 1980Earthquake · M 7.33 km NNE of Chlef, Algeria · 5,000 deaths (NOAA)USGS · NOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
- September 9, 1954Earthquake · M 6.7northern Algeria · 1,243 deaths (NOAA)USGS · NOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
- September 9, 1954Earthquake · M 6.7El AsnamNOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
- June 24, 1910Earthquake · M 6.51 km W of Sidi Aïssa, Algeria · 12 deaths (NOAA)USGS · NOAA NCEI
- March 2, 1825EarthquakeBlida, Algiers · 7,000 deaths (NOAA)NOAA NCEI
- May 1716EarthquakeAlgiers · 20,000 deaths (NOAA)NOAA NCEI
- January 2, 1365Tsunami · 5 m hereAlgiersNOAA NCEI
- March 3, 1359EarthquakeAlgiersNOAA NCEI
Good to know
- An event counts for Algeria 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 Algeria 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 Algeria, 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