Earthquakes of magnitude 7 and above in the Himalaya since 1930

Map of 19 locations in Himalaya

A dated sequence of large earthquakes recorded along the Himalaya and its western continuation into the Hindu Kush, from the 1930s to the present century. Each entry draws on the seismological catalogue that fixes the origin, epicentre and depth, together with contemporaneous accounts of what the shaking did in Nepal, northern India, Tibet, Pakistan and Afghanistan. These are historical events, several of them documented only in the sparse catalogue lines that survive from the era before dense instrumental networks.

Places in this collection

  • October 2015 Hindu Kush earthquake — The shock struck South Asia at 13:39 AFT, with the epicentre placed 45 km north of Kuran wa Munjan in Afghanistan, roughly 82 km southeast…
  • May 2015 Nepal earthquake — The shock struck at 12:50 pm local time, 18 kilometres southeast of Kodari, with the epicentre on the border of the Dolakha and Sindhupalch…
  • April 2015 Nepal earthquake — Also known as the Gorkha earthquake, it occurred at 11:56 Nepal Standard Time and reached a maximum Mercalli intensity of VIII. It killed n…
  • 2008 Hotan earthquake — The epicentre was located 226 kilometres southeast of Hotan in Xinjiang, China, with an origin at 04:32 local time on 21 March. Records goi…
  • 2002 Hindu Kush earthquake — This was the first of the two most destructive of the 2002 earthquakes in northern Afghanistan, both of which occurred in March. It killed…
  • 1997 western Xizang earthquake — The event is listed in the International Institute of Seismology and Earthquake Engineering catalogue as located in Xizang, with the origin…
  • 1997 Harnai earthquake — The shock was centred near Harnai in Pakistan and was felt throughout much of central Balochistan. Small villages in Sibi District, built m…
  • 1993 Jurm earthquake — Catalogue records place the epicentre south of Jurm in Badakhshan, northeastern Afghanistan. No account of damage or casualties appears in…
  • 1988 Myanmar-India earthquake — Also known as the Indo-Burma earthquake, it struck the Sagaing Region of Myanmar at 7:06 am MMT, about 30 kilometres from the border with I…
  • 1983 Jurm earthquake — The epicentre was located about 55 km from Jurm in Badakhshan, northeastern Afghanistan, at 04:22 local time on 31 December. No casualty fi…
  • 1970 Tuensang earthquake — Catalogue records place the epicentre east-southeast of Tuensang in Nagaland, India. No account of damage or casualties appears in the avai…
  • 1965 Hindu Kush earthquake — The epicentre lay about 52 km from Jurm in Badakhshan, northeastern Afghanistan, and the event is catalogued under the Hindu Kush region. L…
  • 1952 Damxung earthquake — The shock struck Tibet in the early morning hours of 18 August local time, with the epicentre in the Nyenchen Tanglha Mountains in Damxung…
  • 1951 Nagqu earthquake — Catalogue records place the epicentre west-southwest of Nagqu in Tibet, China. No account of damage or casualties appears in the available…
  • 1950 Assam-Tibet earthquake — The epicentre was placed 40 km west of Rima, also called Zayü or Chayu, in southeastern Tibet, where eyewitnesses reported the greatest sev…
  • 1949 Jurm earthquake — The record places the epicentre near Jurm in Badakhshan province, northeastern Afghanistan, at an intermediate depth far below the surface.…
  • 1947 Assam earthquake — The event was located near the border between India and Tibet. Sources disagree on which side the epicentre fell, some placing it in India…
  • 1943 Dergaon earthquake — Earthquake catalogues place the epicentre about 13 km west of Dergaon in Assam, India, close to Numaligarh. The available records carry no…
  • 1934 Bihar-Nepal earthquake — The shock struck at around 2:13 pm IST and caused widespread damage across northern Bihar and in Nepal, with the epicentre located in easte…

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