April 5, 1646 Earthquake: Ligurian Coast, Italy
A magnitude 5.2 earthquake struck Ligurian Coast, Italy on April 5, 1646. It caused a tsunami.
Map
Where it struck, with the other significant earthquakes within 200 km. Circles are sized and colored by magnitude; select one for its page.
The earthquake
- Date
- April 5, 1646
- Place
- Ligurian Coast, Italy
- Magnitude
- 5.2 (Ms)
- Intensity
- VII, very strong shaking, on the Modified Mercalli scale
- Tsunami
- Yes: the tsunami it caused
- Epicenter
- 43.550° N, 10.317° E
- Country
- Italy
- Region
- Southern Europe
The toll
- Damage
- Moderate (about $1 to $5 million)
- Houses damaged
- Many (101 to 1,000)
Where the literature gives no number, NCEI records a description on a scale of 1 to 4, printed here in its words. Damage is in millions of US dollars of the year of the event, not adjusted for inflation.
What the record says
NCEI’s account, from the sources it cites.
1646, April 5. Italy, Leghorn. Intensity I which corresponds to an earthquake of intensity sufficient to crack walls, break chimneys, to shatter old buildings or to produce cracks in the ground. (reference #1055)
1646, April 5. Italy, Livorno, 43o33'N, 10o18'E, intensity VII. (reference #1075)
1646, April 5, 22.5 hour. Leghorn and the adjacent country. Lasted at Leghorn, the time of chanting a credo. It appeared to come from the coast. Slight shocks from this up to the 17th, when there was another rather violent, at the same hour. (reference #521)
1646, April 5. Tuscany, 43o33'N, 10o19'E, magnitude 5.2, earthquake intensity 7. Strong earthquake in Livorno. Many buildings suffered severe damage. (reference #4139)
Sources NCEI cites
The publications NCEI lists for this record. The numbers match the “reference #” notes in its account above.
- #1055 Milne, John (1911). Catalogue of Destructive Earthquakes [7 to 1899 A.D.], Report of the 81st Meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, Portsmouth, London, United Kingdom, p. 649-740.
- #1075 Giorgetti, F. and E. Iaccarino (1971). Italian Earthquake Catalogue from the Beginning of the Christian Age up to 1968, Osservatorio Geofisico Sperimentale, Trieste, Italy.
- #521 Mallet, Robert (1853). Catalogue of Recorded Earthquakes from 1606 B.C. to A.D. 1850, Part I, 1606 B.C. to 1755 A.D. Report of the 22nd Meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science held at Hull, Sept., 1853, John Murray, London, p. 1-176.
- #4139 Tsunami Risk and Strategies for the European region (TRANSFER) project (2009). Northeast Atlantic and Mediterranean Region Tsunami Catalogue (NEAMTWS), retrieved February 2009 from http://www.ioc-tsunami.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=282&Itemid=1102
Other significant earthquakes nearby
Within 200 km, the deadliest first.
- December 25, 1352, Sansepolcro, Italy
- April 14, 1672, Rimini, Italy
- September 7, 1920, Carrara,garfagnana, Italy
- February 23, 1887, Ligurian Coast, Italy
- September 30, 1789, Citta Di Castello,sansepolcro, Italy
- August 3, 1414, Sansepolcro, Italy
- February 15, 1644, Corsica,belvedere,roquebilliere, France
- October 19, 1768, Santa Sofia, Italy
- June 13, 1542, Scarperia, Italy
- February 14, 1834, Borgo Val Di Taro, Italy
- August 14, 1846, Orciano, Luciana, Italy
- June 11, 1695, Bagnoregio, Italy
- February 6, 1971, Tuscania, Italy
- January 13, 1832, Foligno, Italy
- May 29, 2012, Medolla, Mirandola, Cavezzo, Emilia Romagna, Italy
More
Significant earthquakes of 1646The 1600sRecent earthquakes near hereThis day in weather history
Sources
Significant earthquakes from NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information, Global Historical Hazard Database, cited as NCEI/WDS, doi:10.7289/V5PN93H7. Public domain. Read 2026-10-01. NCEI earthquake 9979.