Belize
Earthquakes in Belize through history
From 1900 to October 19, 2026, USGS recorded one earthquake of magnitude 6 or more in or off Belize. The strongest on either list was an estimated magnitude 7.5 on August 4, 1856 (Coast).
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
NOAA’s list of significant earthquakes has 2 here, back to 1539. NOAA records no deaths for any of them. NOAA’s record here begins on November 24, 1539 with an earthquake (Cabo De Higueras). NOAA lists 2 tsunamis that began in or off Belize. The highest of them reached 5 m, on August 4, 1856.
The events
Good to know
- An event counts for Belize 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 Belize 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 Belize, 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