Earthquakes in Tunisia through history
USGS recorded no earthquake of magnitude 6 or more in or off Tunisia from 1900 to October 19, 2026. NOAA’s list of significant earthquakes has 10 in or off Tunisia, back to AD 412.
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
None reached magnitude 7: the strongest was a magnitude 5.6 on February 20, 1957 (Sidi Abid,Sidi Touil (La Medja),Cailloux). The deadliest was not the strongest: an earthquake on December 3, 856 (Tunis), for which NOAA records 45,000 deaths. NOAA records deaths in 4 of the events here, 48,016 in all. The latest on NOAA’s list is a magnitude 5.3 on February 18, 1962 (Gafour,Oum-Zid,El Akhouat). NOAA’s record here begins in AD 412 with an earthquake (Utique). It grows thinner going back: 4 of the 10 significant earthquakes NOAA lists here are from 1927 on. NOAA lists 3 tsunamis that began in or off Tunisia. The highest water NOAA records here was 1 m, in 1894.
The events
- February 18, 1962Earthquake · M 5.3Gafour,Oum-Zid,El AkhouatNOAA NCEI
- February 20, 1957Earthquake · M 5.6Sidi Abid,Sidi Touil (La Medja),Cailloux · 13 deaths (NOAA)NOAA NCEI
- August 6, 1947Earthquake · M 5.33 deaths (NOAA)NOAA NCEI
- 1894Tsunami · 1 m hereBalearic SeaNOAA NCEI
- January 1758EarthquakeTunis, Constantine · 3,000 deaths (NOAA)NOAA NCEI
- December 3, 856EarthquakeTunis · 45,000 deaths (NOAA)NOAA NCEI
- June 2, 854EarthquakeKairouan, TunisNOAA NCEI
- AD 412EarthquakeUtiqueNOAA NCEI
Good to know
- An event counts for Tunisia 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 Tunisia 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 Tunisia, 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