Norfolk Island
Earthquakes in Norfolk Island through history
From 1900 to October 19, 2026, USGS recorded one earthquake of magnitude 6 or more in or off Norfolk Island. It was a magnitude 6.5 on May 20, 1960 (Norfolk Island, Australia region).
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
NOAA’s record here begins on May 8, 1805 with a tsunami (Norfolk Island). NOAA lists one tsunami that began in or off Norfolk Island. The highest water NOAA records here was 5 m, on May 8, 1805.
The events
Good to know
- An event counts for Norfolk Island 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 Norfolk Island 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 Norfolk Island, 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