Libya
Earthquakes in Libya through history
From 1900 to October 19, 2026, USGS recorded 3 earthquakes of magnitude 6 or more in or off Libya. None reached magnitude 7: the strongest was a magnitude 6.8 on April 19, 1935 (near the coast of Libya).
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 5.4 on February 21, 1963 (Barce (Al Marj)), for which NOAA records 300 deaths. NOAA’s list of significant earthquakes has 2 here, back to AD 704. NOAA’s record here begins in AD 704 with an earthquake (Southern Libya).
The events
- August 17, 1982Earthquake · M 6.4115 km NNE of Darnah, LibyaUSGS
- February 21, 1963Earthquake · M 5.4Barce (Al Marj) · 300 deaths (NOAA)NOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
- April 20, 1935Earthquake · M 6.2112 km WSW of Sirte, LibyaUSGS
- April 19, 1935Earthquake · M 6.8near the coast of LibyaUSGS
- AD 704EarthquakeSouthern LibyaNOAA NCEI
Good to know
- An event counts for Libya 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 Libya 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 Libya, 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