Earthquakes in Eritrea, 1927–2026

One earthquake here in these years is on NOAA’s list of significant earthquakes. The latest on NOAA’s list is a magnitude 5.9 on April 1, 1973 (Djibouti). NOAA lists one significant eruption of one volcano in or off Eritrea. The largest was Nabro on June 22, 2011, at 4 on the volcanic explosivity index. It killed 31 people by NOAA’s count.

• June 22, 2011Eruption · VEI 4Nabro · 31 deaths (NOAA)NOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
• December 28, 1977Earthquake · M 6.6144 km NE of Massawa, EritreaUSGS
• April 1, 1973Earthquake · M 5.9DjiboutiNOAA NCEI
• March 11, 1961Earthquake · M 6.210 km WNW of Djibouti, DjiboutiUSGS
• March 31, 1945Earthquake · M 6.222 km S of Adi Keyh, EritreaUSGS

• An event counts for Eritrea 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 Eritrea 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 Eritrea, 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