List of earthquakes in Mexico

This is a partial list of earthquakes in Mexico. This list considers every notable earthquake felt or with its epicenter within Mexico's current borders and maritime areas.

Map of earthquakes in Mexico from 1900 to 2022

Seismic hazard risk in Mexico

2017

1995

1985

1932

1787

Location of M 8.0+ earthquakes in Mexico with year of occurrence

Geology

Mexico lies within two seismically active earthquake zones. The Baja California peninsula lies near the boundary of the Pacific plate and the North American plate, while southern Mexico lies just north of the boundary between the North American plate and the Cocos and Rivera tectonic plates. The Cocos plate is subducting under the North American plate at a rate of 67 mm (0.220 ft) per year, while the Pacific and Rivera plates are moving northwest relative to the North American plate. Southern Mexico also contains numerous faults, which causes that section of the country to have high tectonic activity. Northeastern Mexico and the Yucatan Peninsula are not as seismically active as the area close to the boundary between the North American and Cocos plates, but destructive earthquakes can still occur in those areas.

Earthquakes

Date	Area	Mag.	MMI	Deaths	Injuries	Total damage / notes	Ref
2022-09-22	Michoacán	6.8 Mw	VII	3	5	Aftershock
2022-09-19	Michoacán	7.6 Mw	VIII	2	35	Severe damage	[1]
2022-06-21	Jalisco	2.4 Mw				Severe damage	[2][3]
2022-03-03	Veracruz	5.7 Mw	IV			Minor damage	[4][5]
2021-09-07	Guerrero	7.0 Mw	VIII	13	23	Three missing, damage to 8,700 buildings
2020-06-23	Oaxaca	7.4 Mw	IX	10	25
2018-02-16	Oaxaca	7.2 Mw	VII	14	17	Most of casualties after a helicopter crash
2017-09-23	Oaxaca	6.1 Mw	VII	6	7	7,000 displaced	[6][7][8]
2017-09-19	Mexico City, Morelos, Puebla	7.1 Mw	IX	370	6,011
2017-09-07	Chiapas, Oaxaca	8.2 Mw	IX	98	300	Tsunami
2015-11-23	Guerrero	5.5 Mw	IV	2			[9]
2014-07-07	Chiapas	6.9 Mw	VII	5	12
2014-05-08	Guerrero	6.6 Mw	VII
2014-04-18	Guerrero	7.2 Mw	VII		1
2012-03-20	Guerrero, Oaxaca	7.4 Mw	VIII	2	11
2011-12-10	Guerrero	6.5 Mw	VII	3	10
2011-05-05	Guerrero	5.7 Mw	VI
2010-06-30	Oaxaca	6.2 Mw		1
2010-04-04	Baja California	7.2 Mw	VII	2–4	100–233	$1.15 billion
2009-04-27	Guerrero	5.8 Mw	V	3		Four houses destroyed	[10][11]
2003-01-22	Colima	7.5 Mw	VIII	29	300	Severe / tsunami
1999-12-29	Guerrero	5.9 Mw	V		1	Minor damage	[12]
1999-09-30	Oaxaca	7.4 Mw	VIII	35
1999-06-15	Puebla	7.0 Mw	VIII	14	200	MXN $200,000,000	[13]
1997-01-11	Michoacán	7.2 Mw	VIII	1		Damage at Arteaga	[14]
1995-10-21	Chiapas	7.1 Mw	VI
1995-10-09	Colima, Jalisco	8.0 Mw	VIII	49–58	100	Tsunami
1995-09-14	Guerrero	7.4 Mw	VII	3
1989-04-25	Guerrero	6.9 Mw	VII	3	6–350		[15][16]
1985-09-19	Michoacán, Mexico City	8.0 Mw	IX	5,000–45,000	30,000	Extreme / tsunami
1981-10-25	Michoacán	7.2 Mw	VIII	3
1980-10-24	Oaxaca	7.2 Mw	IX	65–300+	Many	$5 million
1979-10-15	Baja California	6.4 Mw	IX		91
1979-03-14	Guerrero	7.6 Mw	VIII	5	35
1973-08-28	Puebla, Veracruz	7.1 ML	VIII	539–1,000	Thousands	Severe
1973-01-30	Colima	7.5 Ms		56	390	Moderate / non-destructive tsunami	[17]
1968-08-02	Guerrero, Oaxaca	7.3	VII
1965-08-23	Oaxaca	7.5 Mw		6
1964-07-06	Guerrero	7.4 Ms	IX	40
1959-08-26	Veracruz	6.4 Mw	VIII	25	200	Severe
1957-07-28	Guerrero, Mexico City	7.9 Ms	VII	54–160	Many	Extreme / tsunami	[17]
1941-04-15	Colima	7.6 Mw	IX	90
1937-07-26	Puebla, Veracruz	7.3 Ms	IX	34
1932-06-22	Colima	7.0 Mw	VIII			Tsunami
1932-06-18	Colima	7.8 Mw	VIII			Tsunami
1932-06-03	Jalisco	8.1 Mw	X	400		Tsunami
1931-01-15	Oaxaca	7.8 Mw	X	114
1920-01-03	Puebla, Veracruz	6.4 Ms	X–XII	648–4,000	167		[17]
1912-11-19	State of Mexico	7.0	VIII	140			[18]
1911-12-16	Guerrero	7.6	IX
1911-06-07	Michoacán	7.6	IX	45
1909-07-30	Guerrero	7.6	IX
1907-04-15	Guerrero	7.7	VIII
1900-01-20	Colima	7.4	VII
1899-01-24	Guerrero	7.5	VII
1897-06-05	Oaxaca	7.4	VII
1894-11-02	Guerrero, Oaxaca	7.4	VIII
1892-02-24	Baja California	7.1–7.2	X	0
1890-12-02	Guerrero, Oaxaca	7.3	VII
1889-09-06	Guerrero	7.1	VI
1887-05-29	Guerrero	7.3	VIII
1887-05-03	Sonora	7.6 Mw		51
1882-07-19	Guerrero, Oaxaca	7.5	IX
1879-05-17	Puebla	7.1	VIII
1875-03-09	Colima, Jalisco	7.4	VII
1875-02-11	Jalisco	7.5	VIII
1874-03-16	Guerrero	7.3	VII
1872-03-27	Oaxaca	7.4	VI
1870-05-11	Oaxaca	7.8	IX
1864-10-03	Puebla, Veracruz	7.3	VIII
1858-06-19	Michoacán	7.5	IX			"Temblor de Santa Juliana"	[19]
1854-05-05	Oaxaca	7.7	VIII
1852-12-04	Acapulco	7.8
1845-04-07	Guerrero	7.9 Ms				"Temblor de Santa Teresa"	[20][19]
1852-11-29	Baja California	6.5 MLa	IX				[21]
1845-03-09	Oaxaca	7.5	VII
1837-11-22	Jalisco	7.7	IX
1835-01-06	State of Mexico		VII?
1820-05-04	Guerrero	7.6	VII
1818-05-31	Colima, Michoacán	7.7	VIII
1806-03-25	Colima, Michoacán	7.5 Ms					[20]
1800-03-08	Central, Eastern, and Southeastern		VII
1787-03-28	Guerrero, Oaxaca, Mexico City	8.6 Mw				Severe / tsunami
1776-04-21	Mexico City, Southern		VIII
Stover & Coffman 1993 uses various seismic scales. MLa is a local magnitude that is equivalent to ML (Richter scale) and is used for events that occurred prior to the instrumental period. It is based on the area of perceptibility (as presented on isoseismal maps). Mw = moment magnitude scale and Ms = surface-wave magnitude. The inclusion criteria for adding events are based on WikiProject Earthquakes' notability guideline that was developed for stand alone articles. The principles described are also applicable to lists. In summary, only damaging, injurious, or deadly events should be recorded.

See also

• Geography of Mexico

Notes

1. "M 7.6 – 37 km SE of Aquila, Mexico". 19 September 2022.
2. National Autonomous University of Mexico (1998), Earthquake Catalog (in Mexican Spanish), National Seismological Service, doi:10.21766/SSNMX/EC/MX
3. "Falla en Ciudad Guzmán deja 102 casas afectadas, 22 de ellas no habitables". NotiespacioPV (in Spanish). 22 June 2022. Retrieved 23 June 2022.
4. "M 5.7 – Veracruz, Mexico". United States Geological Survey.
5. "Reportan daños en escuela de Coatepec tras sismo". palabrasclaras.mx (in Spanish). 2 March 2022. Retrieved 4 March 2022.
6. "Suman cuatro muertos en Oaxaca por sismo de ayer sábado – Matutinazo" [There are four deaths in Oaxaca due to an earthquake on Saturday – Matutinazo]. Matutinazo (in Mexican Spanish). September 24, 2017. Retrieved September 24, 2017.
7. "Tras el sismo, fallecen dos mujeres por infarto en la CDMX" [After the earthquake, two women died of heart attack in the CDMX]. Excélsior (in Spanish). September 23, 2017. Retrieved September 23, 2017.
8. "Oaxaca: Damnificadas del sismo del 23 de septiembre de 2017 tejen muñecas "con causa" | Fotos" [Oaxaca: Victims of the earthquake of September 23, 2017 weave dolls "with a cause" | Photos]. La Neta Neta! (in Mexican Spanish). September 23, 2019. Retrieved April 17, 2022.
9. "El pequeño terremoto de 5,6 que dejó dos muertos en México" [The small earthquake of 5.6 that left two dead in Mexico] (in Spanish). BBC. November 24, 2015. Retrieved April 17, 2022.
10. "Sismo deja una persona muerta en Guerrero" [Earthquake leaves a person dead in Guerrero]. El Universal (in Spanish). April 27, 2009. Archived from the original on May 24, 2012. Retrieved April 17, 2022.
11. "Mexico: Earthquake". Deseret News. April 28, 2009. Archived from the original on October 16, 2012. Retrieved April 17, 2022.
12. "M 5.9 – 19 km WSW of Guayameo, Mexico". United States Geological Survey.
13. "Puebla, a 18 años del terremoto de 1999" [Puebla, 18 years after the earthquake of 1999]. El Popular (in Spanish). June 15, 2016. Archived from the original on April 18, 2019. Retrieved November 19, 2019.
14. "M 7.2 – Michoacan, Mexico". United States Geological Survey.
15. ANSS. "Guerrero 1989 : M 6.9 – Guerrero, Mexico". Comprehensive Catalog. U.S. Geological Survey. Retrieved January 27, 2021.
16. PAGER-CAT Earthquake Catalog, Version 2008_06.1, United States Geological Survey, 4 September 2009
17. NGDC 1972
18. Zúñiga, F.R.; Pacheco, J.F.; Guzmán-Speziale, M.; Aguirre-Dı́az, G.J.; Espı́ndola, V.H.; Nava, E. (2003). "The Sanfandila earthquake sequence of 1998, Queretaro, Mexico: activation of an undocumented fault in the northern edge of central Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt". Tectonophysics. 361 (3–4): 229–238. Bibcode:2003Tectp.361..229Z. doi:10.1016/S0040-1951(02)00606-6.
19. "19th century earthquakes in Mexico: three cases, three comparative studies" by América Molina del Villar
20. Singh, S. K.; Astiz, L.; Havskov, J. (1981), "Seismic gaps and recurrence periods of large earthquakes along the Mexican subduction zone: A reexamination", Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America, 71 (3), Seismological Society of America: 828, Bibcode:1981BuSSA..71..827S, doi:10.1785/BSSA0710030827
21. Stover, C. W.; Coffman, J. L. (1993), Seismicity of the United States, 1568–1989 (Revised), U.S. Geological Survey Professional Paper 1527, United States Government Printing Office, pp. 72, 101

References

• NGDC (1972), Significant Earthquake Database (Data Set), National Geophysical Data Center, NOAA, doi:10.7289/V5TD9V7K