Samoa
Earthquakes in Samoa, 2017–2026
From 2017 to October 19, 2026, USGS recorded 676 earthquakes of magnitude 4.5 or more in or off Samoa. The strongest was a magnitude 7.6 on May 10, 2023 (82 km WNW of Hihifo, Tonga).
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
One earthquake here in these years is on NOAA’s list of significant earthquakes. NOAA records no deaths for it.
The events
- March 22, 2026Earthquake · M 6.3140 km ENE of Hihifo, TongaUSGS
- May 10, 2023Earthquake · M 7.682 km WNW of Hihifo, TongaUSGS · NOAA NCEI
- December 4, 2022Earthquake · M 6.8109 km NE of Hihifo, TongaUSGS
- November 7, 2020Earthquake · M 6.283 km NNE of Hihifo, TongaUSGS
- November 4, 2017Earthquake · M 6.897 km NE of Hihifo, TongaUSGS
Good to know
- An event counts for Samoa 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 Samoa 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 Samoa, 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