Earthquakes in Poland through history
USGS recorded no earthquake of magnitude 6 or more in or off Poland from 1900 to October 19, 2026. NOAA’s list of significant earthquakes has 10 in or off Poland, back to 1619.
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
None reached magnitude 7: the strongest was a magnitude 4.8 on September 21, 2004 (Suwalki; Russia: Kaliningrad, Svetlogorsk). The deadliest was not the strongest: a magnitude 2.8 on April 23, 2022 (Silesian: Jastrzebie-Zdroj), for which NOAA records 10 deaths. NOAA records deaths in 8 of the events here, 31 in all. The latest on NOAA’s list is a magnitude 2.9 on July 11, 2024 (Rybnik). NOAA’s record here begins in 1619 with an earthquake (Frankfurt). It grows thinner going back: 9 of the 10 significant earthquakes NOAA lists here are from 1927 on. NOAA lists one tsunami that began in or off Poland.
The events
- July 11, 2024Earthquake · M 2.9Rybnik · one death (NOAA)NOAA NCEI
- April 23, 2022Earthquake · M 2.8Silesian: Jastrzebie-Zdroj · 10 deaths (NOAA)NOAA NCEI
- January 22, 2019Earthquake · M 3.9Rydultowy · one death (NOAA)NOAA NCEI
- May 5, 2018Earthquake · M 4.1Silesian: Jastrzebie-Zdroj · 5 deaths (NOAA)NOAA NCEI
- November 29, 2016Earthquake · M 4.2Rudna · 8 deaths (NOAA)NOAA NCEI
- November 22, 2008Earthquake · M 4.1Karvina · 2 deaths (NOAA)NOAA NCEI
- September 21, 2004Earthquake · M 4.8Suwalki; Russia: Kaliningrad, SvetlogorskNOAA NCEI
- March 1, 1779TsunamiBaltic SeaNOAA NCEI
- 1619EarthquakeFrankfurtNOAA NCEI
Good to know
- An event counts for Poland 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 Poland 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 Poland, 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