Earthquakes in Norway through history
From 1900 to October 19, 2026, USGS recorded 27 earthquakes of magnitude 6 or more in or off Norway. None reached magnitude 7: the strongest was a magnitude 6.8 on August 30, 2012 (89 km NW of Olonkinbyen, Svalbard and Jan Mayen).
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 list of significant earthquakes has 2 here, back to 1731. NOAA records deaths in 9 of the events here, 249 in all. The latest on NOAA’s list is a magnitude 5.5 on January 24, 1927 (North Sea). NOAA’s record here begins on January 8, 1731 with a tsunami (Western Norway). NOAA lists 30 tsunamis that began in or off Norway. The highest water NOAA records here was 74 m, on September 13, 1936. The deadliest, on September 13, 1936, killed 71 people here by NOAA’s runup records.
The events
- November 9, 2018Earthquake · M 6.7120 km NW of Olonkinbyen, Svalbard and Jan MayenUSGS
- August 30, 2012Earthquake · M 6.889 km NW of Olonkinbyen, Svalbard and Jan MayenUSGS
- July 20, 1992Earthquake · M 6.7230 km W of Longyearbyen, Svalbard and Jan MayenUSGS
- September 13, 1936Tsunami · 74 m hereLoen · 71 deaths here (NOAA)NOAA NCEI
- January 24, 1927Earthquake · M 5.5North SeaNOAA NCEI
- October 10, 1923Earthquake · M 6.666 km NNW of Olonkinbyen, Svalbard and Jan MayenUSGS
- October 14, 1908Earthquake · M 6.6north of SvalbardUSGS
- January 8, 1731TsunamiWestern NorwayNOAA NCEI
Good to know
- An event counts for Norway 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 Norway 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 Norway, 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