Earthquakes in Congo - Kinshasa, 2017–2026
From 2017 to October 19, 2026, USGS recorded 53 earthquakes of magnitude 4.5 or more in Congo - Kinshasa. None reached magnitude 6: the strongest was a magnitude 5.2 on October 26, 2023 (177 km SE of Kabalo, Democratic Republic of the Congo).
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 5 on June 10, 2021 (88 km SW of Kabare, Democratic Republic of the Congo), for which NOAA records 2 deaths. One earthquake here in these years is on NOAA’s list of significant earthquakes. NOAA records deaths in 2 of the events here, 34 in all. NOAA lists one significant eruption of one volcano in Congo - Kinshasa. The largest was Nyiragongo on May 22, 2021, at 2 on the volcanic explosivity index. It killed 32 people by NOAA’s count.
The events
- October 26, 2023Earthquake · M 5.2177 km SE of Kabalo, Democratic Republic of the CongoUSGS
- June 10, 2021Earthquake · M 5.088 km SW of Kabare, Democratic Republic of the Congo · 2 deaths (NOAA)USGS · NOAA NCEI
- May 22, 2021Eruption · VEI 2Nyiragongo · 32 deaths (NOAA)NOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
- May 21, 2020Earthquake · M 5.1150 km SW of Kamina, Democratic Republic of the CongoUSGS
- October 30, 2019Earthquake · M 5.147 km SW of Kabare, Democratic Republic of the CongoUSGS
- November 30, 2017Earthquake · M 5.016 km SW of Kabare, Democratic Republic of the CongoUSGS
- September 15, 2017Earthquake · M 5.024 km S of Kabare, Democratic Republic of the CongoUSGS
Good to know
- An event counts for Congo - Kinshasa when it began inside its borders. Damage can reach across them.
- 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 Congo - Kinshasa, 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