Cape Verde
Earthquakes in Cape Verde through history
From 1900 to October 19, 2026, USGS recorded 3 earthquakes of magnitude 6 or more in or off Cape Verde. The strongest was a magnitude 6.5 on August 15, 1941 (267 km NNW of Ponta do Sol, Cabo Verde).
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 record here begins on April 9, 1847 with an eruption (Fogo). NOAA lists 3 significant eruptions of one volcano in or off Cape Verde. The largest was Fogo on April 9, 1847, at 2 on the volcanic explosivity index.
The events
Good to know
- An event counts for Cape Verde 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 Cape Verde 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 Cape Verde, 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