Earthquakes in Sri Lanka through history
USGS recorded no earthquake of magnitude 6 or more in or off Sri Lanka from 1900 to October 19, 2026. NOAA’s list of significant earthquakes has one in or off Sri Lanka, back to 1882.
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 records deaths in 3 of the events here, 35,333 in all. NOAA’s record here begins in January 1882 with an earthquake (Trincomalee). NOAA lists one tsunami that began in or off Sri Lanka, and 4 from elsewhere that reached it with deaths or a metre of water or more. The highest water NOAA records here was 12.5 m, on December 26, 2004. The deadliest here came on December 26, 2004 from a magnitude 9.1 earthquake (Off W. Coast Of Sumatra): NOAA’s runup records count 35,322 deaths in Sri Lanka.
The events
Good to know
- An event counts for Sri Lanka 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 Sri Lanka 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 Sri Lanka, 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