Earthquakes in Taiwan, 2017–2026
From 2017 to October 19, 2026, USGS recorded 806 earthquakes of magnitude 4.5 or more in or off Taiwan. The strongest was a magnitude 7.4 on April 2, 2024 (15 km S of Hualien City, Taiwan).
The last 30 days · as of
USGS recorded one earthquake of magnitude 4.5 or more in the area the map frames in the last 30 days.
The latest: magnitude 4.6 on September 28 (35 km SSE of Hualien City, Taiwan).
What the record holds
It was also the deadliest: NOAA records 18 deaths for it. 8 earthquakes here in these years are on NOAA’s list of significant earthquakes. NOAA records deaths in 6 of the events here, 39 in all. 2024 had the most magnitude 4.5+ earthquakes: 226 of the 806. 166 came in the 30 days after the strongest, within 150 km of it. The latest on NOAA’s list is a magnitude 6.6 on December 27, 2025 (29 km ESE of Yilan, Taiwan). NOAA lists one tsunami that began in or off Taiwan. The highest water NOAA records here was 1 m, on April 2, 2024.
The events
- December 27, 2025Earthquake · M 6.629 km ESE of Yilan, Taiwan · one death (NOAA)USGS · NOAA NCEI
- April 2, 2024Earthquake · M 7.415 km S of Hualien City, Taiwan · 18 deaths (NOAA)USGS · NOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
- April 2, 2024Tsunami · 1 m hereE. Taiwan-Ryukyu IslandsNOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
- September 18, 2022Earthquake · M 6.990 km E of Yujing, Taiwan · one death (NOAA)USGS · NOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
- September 17, 2022Earthquake · M 6.596 km SE of Lugu, TaiwanUSGS
- March 22, 2022Earthquake · M 6.765 km S of Hualien City, TaiwanUSGS · NOAA NCEI
- April 18, 2019Earthquake · M 6.18 km NE of Hualien City, Taiwan · one death (NOAA)USGS · NOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
- February 6, 2018Earthquake · M 6.418 km NNE of Hualien City, Taiwan · 17 deaths (NOAA)USGS · NOAA NCEI
Good to know
- An event counts for Taiwan 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 Taiwan 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 Taiwan, 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