Earthquakes in Armenia through history
From 1900 to October 19, 2026, USGS recorded 2 earthquakes of magnitude 6 or more in Armenia. None reached magnitude 7: the strongest was a magnitude 6.8 on December 7, 1988 (10 km N of Gogaran, Armenia).
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 on December 28, 893 (Dvin; Iran: Ardabil), for which NOAA records 150,000 deaths. NOAA’s list of significant earthquakes has 16 here, back to AD 735. NOAA records deaths in 6 of the events here, 197,890 in all. NOAA’s record here begins in July 735 with an earthquake (Bayotsdzor). It grows thinner going back: 4 of the 16 significant earthquakes NOAA lists here are from 1927 on.
The events
- December 7, 1988Earthquake · M 6.810 km N of Gogaran, Armenia · 25,000 deaths (NOAA)USGS · NOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
- April 27, 1931Earthquake · M 6.414 km S of Hats’avan, Armenia · 2,890 deaths (NOAA)USGS · NOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
- October 22, 1926Earthquake · M 5.9400 deaths (NOAA)NOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
- June 4, 1679Earthquake · M 5.9 (est.)Dvina · 7,600 deaths (NOAA)NOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
- December 28, 893EarthquakeDvin; Iran: Ardabil · 150,000 deaths (NOAA)NOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
- January 858Earthquake · M 5.2 (est.)Dvina · 12,000 deaths (NOAA)NOAA NCEI
- July 735Earthquake · M 5.8 (est.)BayotsdzorNOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
Good to know
- An event counts for Armenia when it began inside its borders. Damage can reach across them.
- 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 Armenia, 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