Earthquakes in Fiji, 1927–2026
From 1927 to October 19, 2026, USGS recorded 213 earthquakes of magnitude 6 or more in or off Fiji. 19 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 23 (193 km ENE of Levuka, Fiji). The strongest: magnitude 5.1 on October 8 (236 km E of Levuka, Fiji).
What the record holds
The deadliest was not the strongest: a magnitude 6.4 on September 14, 1953 (29 km SSW of Suva, Fiji), for which NOAA records 8 deaths. 9 earthquakes here in these years are on NOAA’s list of significant earthquakes. The latest on NOAA’s list is a magnitude 7.9 on September 6, 2018 (45 km S of Levuka, Fiji). NOAA lists 5 tsunamis that began in or off Fiji, and one 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, on September 14, 1953, killed 5 people here by NOAA’s runup records.
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
- May 21, 1962Earthquake · M 7.5262 km WNW of Haveluloto, TongaUSGS
- September 28, 1957Earthquake · M 7.4Fiji regionUSGS · 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
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