Earthquakes in Kazakhstan, 1927–2026
From 1927 to October 19, 2026, USGS recorded 6 earthquakes of magnitude 6 or more in Kazakhstan. None reached magnitude 7: the strongest was a magnitude 6.6 on June 14, 1990 (47 km NNE of Zaysan, Kazakhstan).
The last 30 days · as of
USGS recorded 4 earthquakes of magnitude 4.5 or more in the area the map frames in the last 30 days.
The latest: magnitude 4.5 on October 20 (156 km SE of Kuqa, China). The strongest: magnitude 4.7 on October 10 (7 km S of Trudarmeyskiy, Russia).
What the record holds
The deadliest was not the strongest: a magnitude 6 on December 1, 2003 (106 km E of Kegen, Kazakhstan), for which NOAA records 11 deaths. 5 earthquakes here in these years are on NOAA’s list of significant earthquakes. NOAA records deaths in 3 of the events here, 13 in all. The latest on NOAA’s list is a magnitude 5.4 on June 13, 2009 (Tekeli).
The events
- January 28, 2013Earthquake · M 6.161 km SE of Kegen, KazakhstanUSGS
- June 13, 2009Earthquake · M 5.4Tekeli · one death (NOAA)NOAA NCEI
- December 1, 2003Earthquake · M 6.0106 km E of Kegen, Kazakhstan · 11 deaths (NOAA)USGS · NOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
- November 12, 1990Earthquake · M 6.435 km NW of Tyup, KyrgyzstanUSGS
- August 3, 1990Earthquake · M 6.255 km N of Zaysan, KazakhstanUSGS · NOAA NCEI
- June 14, 1990Earthquake · M 6.647 km NNE of Zaysan, Kazakhstan · one death (NOAA)USGS · NOAA NCEI
- June 3, 1929Earthquake · M 6.4124 km SSW of Yanykurgan, KazakhstanUSGS
Good to know
- An event counts for Kazakhstan 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 Kazakhstan, 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