Earthquakes in United Arab Emirates through history
From 1900 to October 19, 2026, USGS recorded 2 earthquakes of magnitude 6 or more in or off United Arab Emirates. None reached magnitude 7: the strongest was an estimated magnitude 6.5 in 1482 (Hormoz,Oman).
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’s list of significant earthquakes has 6 here, back to 1306. NOAA records no deaths for any of them. The latest on NOAA’s list is a magnitude 5.8 on April 25, 1905 (Bandar Abbas,Qeshm,Hengam). NOAA’s record here begins in 1306 with an earthquake (Qeshm Island). 6 of the 6 significant earthquakes NOAA lists here came before 1927.
The events
Good to know
- An event counts for United Arab Emirates 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 United Arab Emirates 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 United Arab Emirates, 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