Earthquakes in Ireland through history
USGS recorded no earthquake of magnitude 6 or more in Ireland from 1900 to October 19, 2026. NOAA’s list of significant earthquakes has one in Ireland, back to 1490.
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: an earthquake in 1490 (Sligo, Mayo), for which NOAA records 100 deaths. NOAA’s record here begins in 1490 with an earthquake (Sligo, Mayo). NOAA lists 2 tsunamis from elsewhere that reached Ireland with deaths or a metre of water or more. The highest water NOAA records here was 12.2 m, on November 21, 1894.
The events
Good to know
- An event counts for Ireland 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 Ireland, 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