Earthquakes in Cuba through history
From 1900 to October 19, 2026, USGS recorded 8 earthquakes of magnitude 6 or more in or off Cuba. The strongest was a magnitude 7.1 on February 20, 1917 (84 km SW of Niquero, Cuba).
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: an estimated magnitude 6.8 on June 12, 1766 (Santiago De Cuba), for which NOAA records 40 deaths. NOAA’s list of significant earthquakes has 15 here, back to 1678. NOAA records deaths in 2 of the events here, 54 in all. The latest on NOAA’s list is a magnitude 6.8 on November 10, 2024 (42 km SSW of Bartolomé Masó, Cuba). NOAA’s record here begins on February 11, 1678 with an earthquake (Santiago De Cuba). 11 of the 15 significant earthquakes NOAA lists here came before 1927. NOAA lists 5 tsunamis that began in or off Cuba.
The events
- November 10, 2024Earthquake · M 6.842 km SSW of Bartolomé Masó, CubaUSGS · NOAA NCEI
- May 25, 1992Earthquake · M 6.856 km SSW of Niquero, CubaUSGS · NOAA NCEI
- February 3, 1932Earthquake · M 6.737 km SSE of Santiago de Cuba, Cuba · 14 deaths (NOAA)USGS · NOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
- February 20, 1917Earthquake · M 7.184 km SW of Niquero, CubaUSGS
- February 11, 1775TsunamiSantiago De CubaNOAA NCEI
- June 12, 1766Earthquake · M 6.8 (est.)Santiago De Cuba · 40 deaths (NOAA)NOAA NCEI
- February 11, 1678EarthquakeSantiago De CubaNOAA NCEI
Good to know
- An event counts for Cuba 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 Cuba 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 Cuba, 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