Earthquakes in Cayman Islands through history
From 1900 to October 19, 2026, USGS recorded 10 earthquakes of magnitude 6 or more in or off Cayman Islands. The strongest was a magnitude 7.7 on January 28, 2020 (123 km NNW of Lucea, Jamaica).
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 1925. NOAA records no deaths for any of them. The latest on NOAA’s list is a magnitude 7.6 on February 8, 2025 (210 km SSW of George Town, Cayman Islands). NOAA’s record here begins on January 28, 2020 with an earthquake (123 km NNW of Lucea, Jamaica). NOAA lists 2 tsunamis that began in or off Cayman Islands. The highest of them reached 0.11 m, on January 28, 2020.
The events
- February 8, 2025Earthquake · M 7.6210 km SSW of George Town, Cayman IslandsUSGS · NOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
- January 28, 2020Earthquake · M 7.7123 km NNW of Lucea, JamaicaUSGS · NOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
- January 28, 2020Tsunami · 0.11 m highOff Se Coast Of CubaNOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
- December 14, 2004Earthquake · M 6.836 km S of George Town, Cayman IslandsUSGS
- December 1, 1999Earthquake · M 6.3209 km SSW of George Town, Cayman IslandsUSGS
- June 14, 1925Earthquake · M 6.1174 km SSW of George Town, Cayman IslandsUSGS
Good to know
- An event counts for Cayman Islands 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 Cayman Islands 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 Cayman Islands, 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