Earthquakes in Türkiye through history

The deadliest was not the strongest: an estimated magnitude 7.5 on December 13, 115 (Antakya (Antioch)), for which NOAA records 260,000 deaths. NOAA’s list of significant earthquakes has 394 here, back to 1301 BCE. NOAA records deaths in 187 of the events here, 1,237,041 in all. The latest on NOAA’s list is a magnitude 6.1 on August 10, 2025 (10 km WSW of Bigadiç, Turkey). NOAA’s record here begins in 1301 BCE with a tsunami (Ionian Coasts, Troad). It grows thinner going back: 168 of the 394 significant earthquakes NOAA lists here are from 1927 on. NOAA lists 81 tsunamis that began in or off Türkiye, and 2 from elsewhere that reached it with deaths or a metre of water or more. The highest water NOAA records here was 5.3 m, on October 30, 2020. The deadliest here came on July 21, 365 from a magnitude 8 earthquake (Crete): NOAA’s runup records count 700 deaths in Türkiye. NOAA lists one significant eruption of one volcano in or off Türkiye. The largest was Ararat on July 2, 1840, at 3 on the volcanic explosivity index. It killed 1,900 people by NOAA’s count.

• August 10, 2025Earthquake · M 6.110 km WSW of Bigadiç, Turkey · one death (NOAA)USGS · NOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
• February 6, 2023Earthquake · M 7.8Pazarcik earthquake, Kahramanmaras earthquake sequence · 56,697 deaths (NOAA)USGS · NOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
• October 30, 2020Tsunami · 5.3 m hereAegean SeaNOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
• February 1, 1944Earthquake · M 7.610 km WNW of Orta, Turkey · 2,381 deaths (NOAA)USGS · NOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
• December 26, 1939Earthquake · M 7.820 km NNE of Erzincan, Turkey · 32,700 deaths (NOAA)USGS · NOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
• April 22, 1863Earthquake · M 7.8 (est.)Rhodes, Kos · 300 deaths (NOAA)NOAA NCEI
• July 2, 1840Eruption · VEI 3Ararat · 1,900 deaths (NOAA)NOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
• September 10, 1509Earthquake · M 7.7 (est.)Istanbul · 5,000 deaths (NOAA)NOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
• May 29, 525Earthquake · M 7.0 (est.)Antakya (Antioch), Samandag · 250,000 deaths (NOAA)NOAA NCEI
• September 458EarthquakeAntakya (Antioch) · 80,000 deaths (NOAA)NOAA NCEI
• July 21, 365TsunamiCrete · 700 deaths here (NOAA)NOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
• December 13, 115Earthquake · M 7.5 (est.)Antakya (Antioch) · 260,000 deaths (NOAA)NOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
• 1301 BCETsunamiIonian Coasts, TroadNOAA NCEI

• An event counts for Türkiye 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 Türkiye 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 Türkiye, 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