Earthquakes in St. Lucia through history

The deadliest was not the strongest: an earthquake on October 12, 1788, for which NOAA records 900 deaths. NOAA’s list of significant earthquakes has 11 here, back to 1702. NOAA records deaths in 2 of the events here, 1,290 in all. The latest on NOAA’s list is a magnitude 7.2 on December 3, 1906 (45 km W of Saint-Pierre, Martinique). NOAA’s record here begins in September 1702 with an earthquake. 11 of the 11 significant earthquakes NOAA lists here came before 1927. NOAA lists 6 tsunamis that began in or off St. Lucia, and 2 from elsewhere that reached it with deaths or a metre of water or more. The highest water NOAA records here was 1.2 m, on November 18, 1867.

• March 19, 1953Earthquake · M 7.318 km WSW of Soufrière, Saint LuciaUSGS
• May 21, 1946Earthquake · M 6.345 km NE of Le Vauclin, MartiniqueUSGS
• July 6, 1940Earthquake · M 6.113 km W of Barrouallie, Saint Vincent and the GrenadinesUSGS
• December 3, 1906Earthquake · M 7.245 km W of Saint-Pierre, MartiniqueUSGS · NOAA NCEI
• February 16, 1906EarthquakeCastriesNOAA NCEI
• November 18, 1867Tsunami · 1.2 m hereVirgin IslandsNOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
• January 11, 1839Earthquake · M 8.0 (est.)Fort-De-France, St Pierre; Castries · 390 deaths (NOAA)NOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
• October 12, 1788Earthquake900 deaths (NOAA)NOAA NCEI
• September 1702EarthquakeNOAA NCEI

• An event counts for St. Lucia 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 St. Lucia 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 St. Lucia, 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