Syria

Earthquakes in Syria through history

From 1900 to October 19, 2026, USGS recorded one earthquake of magnitude 6 or more in or off Syria. The strongest on either list was an estimated magnitude 7.6 on May 20, 1202 (Southwestern).

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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.

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What the record holds

The deadliest was not the strongest: an earthquake on November 29, 533 (Aleppo), for which NOAA records 130,000 deaths. NOAA’s list of significant earthquakes has 41 here, back to 2001 BCE. NOAA records deaths in 18 of the events here, 492,054 in all. The latest on NOAA’s list is a magnitude 5.2 on August 12, 2024 (12 km NNW of As Salamīyah, Syria). NOAA’s record here begins in 2001 BCE with an earthquake (Ugarit). It grows thinner going back: 3 of the 41 significant earthquakes NOAA lists here are from 1927 on. NOAA lists 5 tsunamis that began in or off Syria.

The events

  • August 12, 2024Earthquake · M 5.212 km NNW of As Salamīyah, Syria · 2 deaths (NOAA)USGS · NOAA NCEI
  • September 29, 1918Earthquake · M 6.4USGS
  • May 20, 1202Earthquake · M 7.6 (est.)Southwestern · 30,000 deaths (NOAA)NOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
  • 1182Earthquake · M 6.7 (est.)Busra; Israel: PalestineNOAA NCEI
  • 1169EarthquakeHalab (Aleppo),Dimashq (Damascus) · 80,000 deaths (NOAA)NOAA NCEI
  • February 13, 1157EarthquakeHalab (Aleppo) · 80,000 deaths (NOAA)NOAA NCEI
  • 1151Earthquake · M 6.2 (est.)BusraNOAA NCEI
  • July 9, 551Earthquake · M 7.3 (est.)Bayrut (Beirut); Egypt; Iraq;saudi ArabiaNOAA NCEI
  • November 29, 533EarthquakeAleppo · 130,000 deaths (NOAA)NOAA NCEI
  • 139 BCETsunamiIsrael And Lebanon CoastsNOAA NCEI
  • 2001 BCEEarthquakeUgaritNOAA NCEI

Good to know

  • An event counts for Syria 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 Syria 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 Syria, 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

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