Barbados

Earthquakes in Barbados through history

From 1900 to October 19, 2026, USGS recorded 4 earthquakes of magnitude 6 or more in or off Barbados. None reached magnitude 7: the strongest was a magnitude 6.5, three times, most recently on July 16, 2015 (128 km NE of Bathsheba, Barbados).

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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.

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What the record holds

The deadliest was not the strongest: an earthquake on August 11, 1831, for which NOAA records 3,000 deaths. NOAA’s list of significant earthquakes has 1 here, back to 1755. NOAA’s record here begins on November 1, 1755 with a tsunami (Lisbon). NOAA lists 2 tsunamis that began in or off Barbados, and 4 from elsewhere that reached it with deaths or a metre of water or more. The highest water NOAA records here was 1.5 m, on November 1, 1755.

The events

  • July 16, 2015Earthquake · M 6.5128 km NE of Bathsheba, BarbadosUSGS
  • February 18, 2014Earthquake · M 6.5171 km NNE of Greenland, BarbadosUSGS
  • September 27, 1928Earthquake · M 6.5110 km SSW of Oistins, BarbadosUSGS
  • November 6, 1919Earthquake · M 6.1180 km NNE of Greenland, BarbadosUSGS
  • August 11, 1831Earthquake3,000 deaths (NOAA)NOAA NCEI
  • November 1, 1755Tsunami · 1.5 m hereLisbonNOAA NCEI · Wikipedia

Good to know

  • An event counts for Barbados 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 Barbados 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 Barbados, 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

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