Earthquakes in Dominica through history

It was also the deadliest: NOAA records 390 deaths for it. NOAA’s list of significant earthquakes has 15 here, back to 1702. NOAA records deaths in 3 of the events here, 392 in all. The latest on NOAA’s list is a magnitude 7.4 on November 29, 2007 (18 km WNW of Basse-Pointe, Martinique). NOAA’s record here begins in September 1702 with an earthquake. 12 of the 15 significant earthquakes NOAA lists here came before 1927. NOAA lists 10 tsunamis that began in or off Dominica, and 2 from elsewhere that reached it with deaths or a metre of water or more. The highest water NOAA records here was 3.7 m, on November 1, 1755.

• November 29, 2007Earthquake · M 7.418 km WNW of Basse-Pointe, Martinique · one death (NOAA)USGS · NOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
• November 21, 2004Earthquake · M 6.320 km SSW of Petites Anses, Guadeloupe · one death (NOAA)USGS · NOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
• January 8, 1959Earthquake · M 6.418 km SSE of Berekua, DominicaUSGS
• May 21, 1946Earthquake · M 6.345 km NE of Le Vauclin, MartiniqueUSGS
• December 3, 1906Earthquake · M 7.245 km W of Saint-Pierre, MartiniqueUSGS · NOAA NCEI
• January 11, 1839Earthquake · M 8.0 (est.)Fort-De-France, St Pierre; Castries · 390 deaths (NOAA)NOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
• November 1, 1755Tsunami · 3.7 m hereLisbonNOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
• September 1702EarthquakeNOAA NCEI

• An event counts for Dominica 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 Dominica 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 Dominica, 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