August 31, 1819 Earthquake: Luroy, Rana Region, Norway

Name: August 31, 1819 Earthquake: Luroy, Rana Region, Norway
Start: 1819-08-31
Location: Luroy, Rana Region, Norway

August 31, 1819 · M5.8

A magnitude 5.8 earthquake struck Luroy, Rana Region, Norway on August 31, 1819. 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: August 31, 1819
Place: Luroy, Rana Region, Norway
Magnitude: 5.8 (Ms)
Intensity: 7 on the Modified Mercalli scale
Tsunami: Yes: the tsunami it caused
Epicenter: 66.416° N, 12.850° E
Country: Norway

The toll

Damage: Limited (under about $1 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.

14:15 local time, referred to as the Luroy 1819 earthquake. This is considered to be the largest known historical earthquake in Fennoscandia. The earthquake was felt "throughout a large district in Norway. Especially at Salten and Helgeland in the province of Nordland" (reference #1879).

The one large earthquake was followed by several smaller earthquakes (reference #3957). Reference #1879 says that "the shocks lasted six minutes and were followed by other slight ones at 5 and 7:05 p.m."

Landslides and rock slides occurred, and sediments filled up the bays. It is likely that landslides above or below the water caused the agitation of water that was reported. (reference #3957)

According to de Capell Brooke (1823, p. 263), Some farms and several rocks were thrown down. We interpret this to mean that some farm houses or farm buildings collapsed and that several rocks fell from the nearby mountains [...] The estimated magnitude of M5.9 +/- 0.2, accounting for the uncertainty of intensity assessment, reconfirms the ranking of the earthquake as the largest onshore or nearshore earthquake in the seismicity record in Fennoscandia. (reference #12781)

Significant earthquakes of 1819 The 1800s Recent earthquakes near here This 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 2026-09-24. NCEI earthquake 7894.