Earthquakes in American Samoa, 2017–2026

2022 had the most magnitude 4.5+ earthquakes: 3 of the 11.

• December 13, 2023Earthquake · M 4.9244 km S of Vailoatai, American SamoaUSGS
• November 10, 2023Earthquake · M 5.2190 km SW of Vailoatai, American SamoaUSGS
• December 4, 2022Earthquake · M 5.0Samoa Islands regionUSGS
• October 30, 2018Earthquake · M 4.9207 km ESE of Hihifo, TongaUSGS
• August 21, 2017Earthquake · M 5.3151 km SW of Vailoatai, American SamoaUSGS

• An event counts for American Samoa 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 American Samoa is the nearest country.
• USGS counts are its ComCat catalogue’s earthquakes of magnitude 4.5 or more, aftershocks included.
• 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 American Samoa, 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