Earthquakes in Haiti through history
From 1900 to October 19, 2026, USGS recorded 7 earthquakes of magnitude 6 or more in or off Haiti. The strongest on either list was an estimated magnitude 8 on May 7, 1842 (Cap-Haitien).
The last 30 days · as of
USGS recorded no earthquake of magnitude 4.5 or more in the area the map frames in the last 30 days.
What the record holds
The deadliest was not the strongest: a magnitude 7 on January 12, 2010 (10 km SE of Léogâne, Haiti), for which NOAA records 316,000 deaths. NOAA’s list of significant earthquakes has 20 here, back to 1701. NOAA records deaths in 10 of the events here, 323,784 in all. The latest on NOAA’s list is a magnitude 4.9 on June 6, 2023 (Haiti region). NOAA’s record here begins on November 9, 1701 with an earthquake (Leogane,Petit Goave). 12 of the 20 significant earthquakes NOAA lists here came before 1927. NOAA lists 7 tsunamis that began in or off Haiti. The highest water NOAA records here was 5 m, on May 7, 1842. The deadliest, on May 7, 1842, killed 300 people here by NOAA’s runup records.
The events
- June 6, 2023Earthquake · M 4.9Haiti region · 4 deaths (NOAA)USGS · NOAA NCEI
- August 14, 2021Earthquake · M 7.2Nippes, Haiti · 2,248 deaths (NOAA)USGS · NOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
- January 12, 2010Earthquake · M 7.010 km SE of Léogâne, Haiti · 316,000 deaths (NOAA)USGS · NOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
- April 8, 1860Earthquake · M 7.5 (est.)Anse-A-VeauNOAA NCEI
- May 7, 1842Earthquake · M 8.0 (est.)Cap-Haitien · 5,300 deaths (NOAA)NOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
- May 7, 1842Tsunami · 5 m hereCap-Haitian · 300 deaths here (NOAA)NOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
- June 3, 1770Earthquake · M 7.5 (est.)Port-Au-Prince · 200 deaths (NOAA)NOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
- November 9, 1701EarthquakeLeogane,Petit GoaveNOAA NCEI
Good to know
- An event counts for Haiti 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 Haiti 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 Haiti, 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