Earthquakes in South Africa, 2017–2026

The deadliest was not the strongest: a magnitude 2.1 on May 3, 2018 (West Rand), for which NOAA records 7 deaths. One earthquake here in these years is on NOAA’s list of significant earthquakes.

• April 29, 2026Earthquake · M 5.3Prince Edward Islands regionUSGS
• September 20, 2023Earthquake · M 5.7Prince Edward Islands regionUSGS
• December 28, 2019Earthquake · M 5.7Prince Edward Islands regionUSGS
• October 13, 2019Earthquake · M 5.4Prince Edward Islands regionUSGS
• May 3, 2018Earthquake · M 2.1West Rand · 7 deaths (NOAA)NOAA NCEI
• April 3, 2017Earthquake · M 5.27 km SSE of Stilfontein, South AfricaUSGS

• An event counts for South Africa 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 South Africa 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 South Africa, 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