Significant earthquakes of 1751

October 18, 1751 Earthquake: Azua DE Compostela, Dominican Republic

October 18, 1751

An earthquake struck Azua DE Compostela, Dominican Republic on October 18, 1751 at 19:00 UTC, 33 km below the surface. 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
October 18, 1751
Time
19:00 UTC
Place
Azua DE Compostela, Dominican Republic
Focal depth
33 km (21 mi)
Epicenter
18.500° N, 70.700° W
Region
Caribbean

The toll

Damage
Severe (about $5 to $25 million)

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.

Occurred 3 p.m. local time (Scherer, 1912). The city of Azua de Compostela, Dominican Republic (at that time, Hispaniola), was destroyed by an earthquake and the resulting tsunami.

Sources NCEI cites

The publications NCEI lists for this record. The numbers match the “reference #” notes in its account above.

  1. #124 Grases, Jose (1990). Terremotos Destructores del Caribe, 1502-1990. UNESCO-RELACIS, Montevideo.
  2. #537 Lander, James F., Lowell W. Whiteside, and Patricia A. Lockridge (2002). A Brief History of Tsunamis in the Caribbean Sea, Science of Tsunami Hazards, the International Journal of the Tsunami Society, Honolulu, Hawaii, USA, vol. 20, no. 2, p. 57-94
  3. #43 Berninghausen, William H. (1968). Tsunamis and seismic seiches reported from the western north and south Atlantic and the coastal waters of northwestern Europe. Informal Report no. 68-85, U.S. Naval Oceanographic Office, Washington, D.C., USA, 45 p.
  4. #530 Scherer J. (1912). Great earthquakes in the island of Haiti. Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America, vol. 2, no. 3, p. 161-180.

Other significant earthquakes nearby

Within 200 km, the deadliest first.

More

Significant earthquakes of 1751The 1700sRecent 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 1323.