Earthquakes in Australia through history
From 1900 to October 19, 2026, USGS recorded 45 earthquakes of magnitude 6 or more in or off Australia. 7 of them reached magnitude 7 or more; the strongest was a magnitude 8 on May 23, 1989 (1989 Macquarie Ridge Earthquake).
The last 30 days · as of
USGS recorded 4 earthquakes of magnitude 4.5 or more in the area the map frames in the last 30 days.
The latest: magnitude 4.5 on October 13 (western Indian-Antarctic Ridge). The strongest: magnitude 5.5 on October 8 (west of Macquarie Island).
What the record holds
The deadliest was not the strongest: a magnitude 5.4 on December 27, 1989 (Newcastle), for which NOAA records 12 deaths. NOAA’s list of significant earthquakes has 28 here, back to 1852. NOAA records deaths in 2 of the events here, 17 in all. The latest on NOAA’s list is a magnitude 5.9 on September 21, 2021 (39 km S of Mount Buller, Australia). NOAA’s record here begins on December 31, 1852 with a tsunami (Tasmania). 13 of the 28 significant earthquakes NOAA lists here came before 1927. NOAA lists 37 tsunamis that began in or off Australia, and 8 from elsewhere that reached it with deaths or a metre of water or more. The highest water NOAA records here was 6 m, on August 19, 1977. The deadliest, on February 6, 1938, killed 5 people here by NOAA’s runup records.
The events
- September 21, 2021Earthquake · M 5.939 km S of Mount Buller, AustraliaUSGS · NOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
- April 12, 2008Earthquake · M 7.1Macquarie Island regionUSGS
- December 27, 1989Earthquake · M 5.4Newcastle · 12 deaths (NOAA)NOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
- May 23, 1989Earthquake · M 8.01989 Macquarie Ridge EarthquakeUSGS · NOAA NCEI
- August 19, 1977Tsunami · 6 m hereSunda IslandsNOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
- August 2, 1965Earthquake · M 7.3Macquarie Island regionUSGS
- September 6, 1943Earthquake · M 7.5Macquarie Island regionUSGS · NOAA NCEI
- February 6, 1938TsunamiBondi Beach, Sydney · 5 deaths here (NOAA)NOAA NCEI
- June 26, 1924Earthquake · M 7.7Macquarie Island regionUSGS · NOAA NCEI
- December 31, 1852Tsunami · 1.2 m hereTasmaniaNOAA NCEI
Good to know
- An event counts for Australia 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 Australia 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 Australia, 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