Earthquakes in Iraq through history
USGS recorded no earthquake of magnitude 6 or more in Iraq from 1900 to October 19, 2026. NOAA’s list of significant earthquakes has 23 in Iraq, back to AD 678.
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
None reached magnitude 7: the strongest was an estimated magnitude 6.4 on December 2, 1864 (Zurbatiyah, Badrah, Tursaq, Baghdad). The deadliest was not the strongest: an earthquake in AD 847 (Al-Mawsil), for which NOAA records 70,000 deaths. NOAA records deaths in 6 of the events here, 136,200 in all. The latest on NOAA’s list is a magnitude 5.1 on July 24, 1991 (Arbil, Dibs). NOAA’s record here begins in AD 678 with an earthquake (Jazirah: Between Tigris And Tharthar Rivers). 22 of the 23 significant earthquakes NOAA lists here came before 1927.
The events
- July 24, 1991Earthquake · M 5.1Arbil, Dibs · 20 deaths (NOAA)NOAA NCEI
- December 2, 1864Earthquake · M 6.4 (est.)Zurbatiyah, Badrah, Tursaq, Baghdad · 100 deaths (NOAA)NOAA NCEI
- September 17, 1007EarthquakeDinavar,Baghdad, Tigris-Ktesiphon · 16,000 deaths (NOAA)NOAA NCEI
- AD 847EarthquakeAl-Mawsil · 70,000 deaths (NOAA)NOAA NCEI
- September 6, 845EarthquakeAl-Mawsil · 50,000 deaths (NOAA)NOAA NCEI
- January 25, 749EarthquakeJazirah: Ne Of Tharthar RiverNOAA NCEI
- AD 678EarthquakeJazirah: Between Tigris And Tharthar RiversNOAA NCEI
Good to know
- An event counts for Iraq when it began inside its borders. Damage can reach across them.
- 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 Iraq, 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