Earthquakes in India through history
From 1900 to October 19, 2026, USGS recorded 136 earthquakes of magnitude 6 or more in or off India. 12 of them reached magnitude 7 or more; the strongest was a magnitude 8.6 on August 15, 1950 (1950 Assam-Tibet Earthquake).
The last 30 days · as of
USGS recorded 11 earthquakes of magnitude 4.5 or more in the area the map frames in the last 30 days.
The latest: magnitude 4.6 on October 12 (170 km SSE of Port Blair, India). The strongest: magnitude 5.1 on October 6 (31 km NW of Bāgeshwar, India).
What the record holds
The deadliest was not the strongest: a magnitude 7.7 on January 26, 2001 (Gujarat: Bhuj, Ahmadabad, Rajokot; Pakistan), for which NOAA records 20,005 deaths. NOAA’s list of significant earthquakes has 103 here, back to 327 BCE. NOAA records deaths in 42 of the events here, 80,296 in all. The latest on NOAA’s list is a magnitude 5.1 on August 20, 2024 (8 km SW of Bāramūla, India). NOAA’s record here begins in 327 BCE with an earthquake (Kutch). It grows thinner going back: 77 of the 103 significant earthquakes NOAA lists here are from 1927 on. NOAA lists 16 tsunamis that began in or off India, and 4 from elsewhere that reached it with deaths or a metre of water or more. The highest water NOAA records here was 17.3 m, on December 26, 2004. The deadliest here came on December 26, 2004 from a magnitude 9.1 earthquake (Off W. Coast Of Sumatra): NOAA’s runup records count 16,294 deaths in India.
The events
- August 20, 2024Earthquake · M 5.18 km SW of Bāramūla, India · one death (NOAA)USGS · NOAA NCEI
- December 26, 2004Tsunami · 17.3 m hereOff W. Coast Of Sumatra · 16,294 deaths here (NOAA)NOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
- January 26, 2001Earthquake · M 7.7Gujarat: Bhuj, Ahmadabad, Rajokot; Pakistan · 20,005 deaths (NOAA)USGS · NOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
- September 29, 1993Earthquake · M 6.220 km SSW of Ausa, India · 11,000 deaths (NOAA)USGS · NOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
- August 15, 1950Earthquake · M 8.61950 Assam-Tibet Earthquake · 1,530 deaths (NOAA)USGS · NOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
- June 26, 1941Earthquake · M 8.043 km N of Bamboo Flat, IndiaUSGS · NOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
- April 4, 1905Earthquake · M 7.9The 1905 Kangra, India Earthquake · 19,000 deaths (NOAA)USGS · NOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
- June 12, 1897Earthquake · M 8.0 (est.)Assam; Bangladesh · 1,542 deaths (NOAA)NOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
- December 31, 1881Earthquake · M 7.9 (est.)Andaman I,Nicobar INOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
- 327 BCEEarthquakeKutchNOAA NCEI
Good to know
- An event counts for India 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 India 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 India, 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