Earthquakes in Austria through history

None reached magnitude 7: the strongest was an estimated magnitude 6.6 on September 15, 1590 (Kamp River). The deadliest was not the strongest: an earthquake on December 4, 1690 (Carinthie), for which NOAA records 20 deaths. The latest on NOAA’s list is a magnitude 4 on February 1, 2024 (Lower Austria). NOAA’s record here begins on January 25, 1348 with a tsunami (Gulf Of Venice). 4 of the 5 significant earthquakes NOAA lists here came before 1927. NOAA lists one tsunami that began in Austria.

• February 1, 2024Earthquake · M 4.0Lower AustriaNOAA NCEI
• December 4, 1690EarthquakeCarinthie · 20 deaths (NOAA)NOAA NCEI
• July 17, 1670EarthquakeInnsbruck, SchwazNOAA NCEI
• September 15, 1590Earthquake · M 6.6 (est.)Kamp RiverNOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
• January 24, 1556EarthquakeProbably KarntenNOAA NCEI
• January 25, 1348TsunamiGulf Of VeniceNOAA NCEI

• An event counts for Austria 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 Austria, 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