Nicaragua

Earthquakes in Nicaragua, 2017–2026

From 2017 to October 19, 2026, USGS recorded 468 earthquakes of magnitude 4.5 or more in or off Nicaragua. The strongest was a magnitude 6.6 on April 21, 2022 (55 km WSW of Masachapa, Nicaragua).

The last 30 days · as of

USGS recorded 3 earthquakes of magnitude 4.5 or more in the area the map frames in the last 30 days.

The latest: magnitude 4.9 on October 19 (68 km WSW of San Juan del Sur, Nicaragua).

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What the record holds

One earthquake here in these years is on NOAA’s list of significant earthquakes. NOAA records no deaths for it. The latest on NOAA’s list is a magnitude 5.4 on May 6, 2018 (10 km S of Intipucá, El Salvador).

The events

  • October 12, 2024Earthquake · M 6.240 km WNW of Tamarindo, Costa RicaUSGS
  • July 19, 2023Earthquake · M 6.543 km S of Intipucá, El SalvadorUSGS
  • April 21, 2022Earthquake · M 6.655 km WSW of Masachapa, NicaraguaUSGS
  • November 9, 2021Earthquake · M 6.362 km S of Masachapa, NicaraguaUSGS
  • September 22, 2021Earthquake · M 6.580 km SW of Jiquilillo, NicaraguaUSGS
  • May 6, 2018Earthquake · M 5.410 km S of Intipucá, El SalvadorUSGS · NOAA NCEI

Good to know

  • An event counts for Nicaragua 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 Nicaragua is the nearest country.
  • USGS counts are its ComCat catalogue’s earthquakes of magnitude 4.5 or more, aftershocks included.
  • 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 Nicaragua, 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

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