Earthquakes in Chile through history

The deadliest was not the strongest: a magnitude 7.9 on January 25, 1939 (26 km WNW of San Carlos, Chile), for which NOAA records 30,000 deaths. NOAA’s list of significant earthquakes has 200 here, back to 1891 BCE. NOAA records deaths in 72 of the events here, 71,455 in all. The latest on NOAA’s list is a magnitude 7.4 on May 2, 2025 (2025 Drake Passage Earthquake). NOAA’s record here begins in 1891 BCE with an eruption (Hudson, Cerro). It grows thinner going back: 98 of the 200 significant earthquakes NOAA lists here are from 1927 on. NOAA lists 113 tsunamis that began in or off Chile, and 10 from elsewhere that reached it with deaths or a metre of water or more. The highest water NOAA records here was 60 m, on February 19, 1965. The deadliest, on February 8, 1570, killed 2,000 people here by NOAA’s runup records. NOAA lists 20 significant eruptions of 9 volcanoes in or off Chile. The largest was Hudson, Cerro in 1891 BCE, at 6 on the volcanic explosivity index. The deadliest was Villarrica on January 1, 1949, which killed 54 people by NOAA’s count.

• May 2, 2025Earthquake · M 7.42025 Drake Passage EarthquakeUSGS · NOAA NCEI
• February 27, 2010Earthquake · M 8.82010 Maule, Chile Earthquake · 558 deaths (NOAA)USGS · NOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
• February 19, 1965Tsunami · 60 m hereSouthern Chile · 27 deaths here (NOAA)NOAA NCEI
• May 22, 1960Earthquake · M 9.51960 Great Chilean Earthquake (Valdivia Earthquake) · 2,226 deaths (NOAA)USGS · NOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
• January 1, 1949Eruption · VEI 3Villarrica · 54 deaths (NOAA)NOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
• January 25, 1939Earthquake · M 7.926 km WNW of San Carlos, Chile · 30,000 deaths (NOAA)USGS · NOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
• November 11, 1922Earthquake · M 8.594 km ENE of Vallenar, Chile · 700 deaths (NOAA)USGS · NOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
• August 17, 1906Earthquake · M 8.2The 1906 Valparaiso, Chile Earthquake · 4,000 deaths (NOAA)USGS · NOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
• August 13, 1868Earthquake · M 8.5 (est.)Arica · 25,000 deaths (NOAA)NOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
• July 8, 1730Earthquake · M 9.1 (est.)Valparaiso · 5 deaths (NOAA)NOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
• December 16, 1575Earthquake · M 8.5 (est.)Valdivia · 1,321 deaths (NOAA)NOAA NCEI
• February 8, 1570TsunamiCentral Chile · 2,000 deaths here (NOAA)NOAA NCEI
• 1891 BCEEruption · VEI 6Hudson, CerroNOAA NCEI · Wikipedia

• An event counts for Chile 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 Chile 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 Chile, 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