Earthquakes in Costa Rica, 2017–2026
From 2017 to October 19, 2026, USGS recorded 294 earthquakes of magnitude 4.5 or more in or off Costa Rica. The strongest was a magnitude 6.7, twice: on July 21, 2021 (71 km S of Burica, Panama) and on October 20, 2022 (60 km SSW of Boca Chica, Panama).
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
The deadliest was not the strongest: a magnitude 6.5 on November 13, 2017 (18 km W of Parrita, Costa Rica), for which NOAA records 2 deaths. One earthquake here in these years is on NOAA’s list of significant earthquakes. NOAA lists one tsunami that began in or off Costa Rica. NOAA lists one significant eruption of one volcano in or off Costa Rica.
The events
- April 4, 2023Earthquake · M 6.373 km S of Boca Chica, PanamaUSGS
- October 20, 2022Earthquake · M 6.760 km SSW of Boca Chica, PanamaUSGS
- November 9, 2021Earthquake · M 6.362 km S of Masachapa, NicaraguaUSGS
- July 21, 2021Earthquake · M 6.771 km S of Burica, PanamaUSGS
- May 2, 2019TsunamiIrazu VolcanoNOAA NCEI
- May 2, 2019EruptionIrazuNOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
- November 13, 2017Earthquake · M 6.518 km W of Parrita, Costa Rica · 2 deaths (NOAA)USGS · NOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
Good to know
- An event counts for Costa Rica 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 Costa Rica 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 Costa Rica, 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