Earthquakes in Fiji through history
From 1900 to October 19, 2026, USGS recorded 230 earthquakes of magnitude 6 or more in or off Fiji. 26 of them reached magnitude 7 or more; the strongest was a magnitude 8.2 on August 19, 2018 (2018 Fiji Earthquake).
The last 30 days · as of
USGS recorded 5 earthquakes of magnitude 4.5 or more in the area the map frames in the last 30 days.
The latest: magnitude 4.5 on October 20 (100 km SSW of Alo, Wallis and Futuna). The strongest: magnitude 5.1 on October 8 (236 km E of Levuka, Fiji).
What the record holds
The deadliest was not the strongest: an earthquake in 1840 (Kadavu), for which NOAA records 40 deaths. NOAA’s list of significant earthquakes has 15 here, back to 1840. NOAA records deaths in 3 of the events here, 2,048 in all. The latest on NOAA’s list is a magnitude 7.9 on September 6, 2018 (45 km S of Levuka, Fiji). NOAA’s record here begins in 1840 with an earthquake (Kadavu). 6 of the 15 significant earthquakes NOAA lists here came before 1927. NOAA lists 6 tsunamis that began in or off Fiji, and 2 from elsewhere that reached it with deaths or a metre of water or more. The highest water NOAA records here was 15 m, on September 14, 1953. The deadliest here came on May 10, 1877 from a magnitude 8.3 earthquake (Northern Chile): NOAA’s runup records count 2,000 deaths in Fiji.
The events
- September 6, 2018Earthquake · M 7.945 km S of Levuka, FijiUSGS · NOAA NCEI
- August 19, 2018Earthquake · M 8.22018 Fiji EarthquakeUSGS · NOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
- March 9, 1994Earthquake · M 7.6240 km E of Levuka, FijiUSGS · NOAA NCEI
- September 14, 1953Earthquake · M 6.429 km SSW of Suva, Fiji · 8 deaths (NOAA)USGS · NOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
- September 14, 1953Tsunami · 15 m hereFiji Islands · 5 deaths here (NOAA)NOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
- January 1, 1919Earthquake · M 7.8Fiji regionUSGS · NOAA NCEI
- February 22, 1909Earthquake · M 7.6178 km E of Levuka, FijiUSGS · NOAA NCEI
- May 10, 1877Tsunami · 2 m hereNorthern Chile · 2,000 deaths here (NOAA)NOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
- 1840EarthquakeKadavu · 40 deaths (NOAA)NOAA NCEI
Good to know
- An event counts for Fiji 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 Fiji 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 Fiji, 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