Earthquakes in Belgium through history
USGS recorded no earthquake of magnitude 6 or more in or off Belgium from 1900 to October 19, 2026. NOAA’s list of significant earthquakes has 2 in or off Belgium, back to 1580.
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 strongest was an estimated magnitude 5.8 on April 6, 1580 (Dover Straits). The deadliest was not the strongest: a magnitude 5 on November 8, 1983, for which NOAA records 2 deaths. NOAA’s record here begins on April 6, 1580 with an earthquake (Dover Straits). NOAA lists 3 tsunamis that began in or off Belgium. The highest of them reached 6 m, on June 5, 1858.
The events
Good to know
- An event counts for Belgium 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 Belgium 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 Belgium, 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