Earthquakes in France, 2017–2026
From 2017 to October 19, 2026, USGS recorded 220 earthquakes of magnitude 4.5 or more in or off France. The strongest was a magnitude 6.5 on October 27, 2025 (164 km E of Beauséjour, Guadeloupe).
The last 30 days · as of
USGS recorded 34 earthquakes of magnitude 4.5 or more in the area the map frames in the last 30 days.
The latest: magnitude 5.2 on October 23 (50 km WNW of Malfa, Italy). The strongest: magnitude 6.8 on October 13 (central Mid-Atlantic Ridge).
What the record holds
3 earthquakes here in these years are on NOAA’s list of significant earthquakes. NOAA records no deaths for any of them. 2018 had the most magnitude 4.5+ earthquakes: 99 of the 220. 64 came in the 30 days after a magnitude 5.9 on May 15, 2018 (32 km E of Pamandzi, Mayotte), within 150 km of it. The latest on NOAA’s list is a magnitude 4.8 on June 16, 2023 (5 km WNW of Mauzé-sur-le-Mignon, France).
The events
- October 27, 2025Earthquake · M 6.5164 km E of Beauséjour, GuadeloupeUSGS
- June 16, 2023Earthquake · M 4.85 km WNW of Mauzé-sur-le-Mignon, FranceUSGS · NOAA NCEI
- January 20, 2023Earthquake · M 6.140 km WSW of Pointe-Noire, GuadeloupeUSGS
- March 26, 2021Earthquake · M 5.865 km NE of Beauséjour, GuadeloupeUSGS
- May 15, 2018Earthquake · M 5.932 km E of Pamandzi, MayotteUSGS · NOAA NCEI
- February 3, 2017Earthquake · M 5.859 km ENE of Sainte-Marie, MartiniqueUSGS
Good to know
- An event counts for France 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 France is the nearest country.
- 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 France, 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