Earthquakes in Chile, 2017–2026
From 2017 to October 19, 2026, USGS recorded 1,767 earthquakes of magnitude 4.5 or more in or off Chile. The strongest was a magnitude 7.4, twice: on July 19, 2024 (41 km ESE of San Pedro de Atacama, Chile) and on May 2, 2025 (2025 Drake Passage Earthquake).
The last 30 days · as of
USGS recorded 19 earthquakes of magnitude 4.5 or more in the area the map frames in the last 30 days.
The latest: magnitude 4.5 on October 23 (58 km SW of Atocha, Bolivia). The strongest: magnitude 5.3 on October 10 (southeast of Easter Island).
What the record holds
The deadliest was not the strongest: a magnitude 6.7 on January 20, 2019 (10 km SSW of Coquimbo, Chile), for which NOAA records 2 deaths. 9 earthquakes here in these years are on NOAA’s list of significant earthquakes. NOAA records deaths in 5 of the events here, 6 in all. The latest on NOAA’s list is a magnitude 7.4 on May 2, 2025 (2025 Drake Passage Earthquake). NOAA lists 6 tsunamis that began in or off Chile, and 2 from elsewhere that reached it with deaths or a metre of water or more. The highest water NOAA records here was 2.5 m, on July 29, 2025.
The events
- May 25, 2026Earthquake · M 6.934 km ENE of Calama, ChileUSGS
- July 29, 2025Tsunami · 2.5 m hereKamchatka Peninsula, RussiaNOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
- May 2, 2025Earthquake · M 7.42025 Drake Passage EarthquakeUSGS · NOAA NCEI
- July 19, 2024Earthquake · M 7.441 km ESE of San Pedro de Atacama, Chile · one death (NOAA)USGS · NOAA NCEI
- September 26, 2019Earthquake · M 6.130 km W of Villa La Angostura, Argentina · one death (NOAA)USGS · NOAA NCEI
- August 1, 2019Earthquake · M 6.896 km SW of San Antonio, ChileUSGS
- January 20, 2019Earthquake · M 6.710 km SSW of Coquimbo, Chile · 2 deaths (NOAA)USGS · NOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
- August 2, 2017Earthquake · M 5.48 km NNE of Chicureo Abajo, Chile · one death (NOAA)USGS · NOAA NCEI
- April 24, 2017Earthquake · M 6.940 km W of Valparaíso, ChileUSGS · NOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
Good to know
- 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 are its ComCat catalogue’s earthquakes of magnitude 4.5 or more, aftershocks included.
- 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