August 4, 1885 Earthquake: Brazil, French Guiana, Suriname, Guyana
A magnitude 6.9 earthquake struck Brazil, French Guiana, Suriname, Guyana on August 4, 1885 at 09:43 UTC.
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 4, 1885
- Time
- 09:43 UTC
- Place
- Brazil, French Guiana, Suriname, Guyana
- Magnitude
- 6.9 (Mw)
- Intensity
- 6 on the Modified Mercalli scale
- Tsunami
- None recorded
- Epicenter
- 3.400° N, 52.900° W
- Country
- French Guiana
The toll
- Damage
- Limited (under about $1 million)
- Houses destroyed
- Few (about 1 to 50)
- Houses damaged
- Few (about 1 to 50)
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.
In 4 August 1885, 06:30 local time, a strong earthquake (reported intensities up to VI–VII modified Mercalli intensity [MMI]) was felt in the French Guiana, causing slight damage.
The distribution of intensities and the radius of the felt area indicate a magnitude around Mw 6.9, which makes it the largest known earthquake in the stable continental region of South America, since the nineteenth century.
[...] the 1885 event is one of the largest known midplate earthquakes in South America, comparable only to the 1690 earthquake, and may therefore impact new versions of seismic hazard maps for the stable part of the continent (e.g., Petersen et al., 2018).
The weighted average of all eight locations gives an epicenter at 3.4° N, 52.9° W with an adopted standard error of 1°. No news of any abnormal behavior of the ocean was reported in any newspaper, despite most towns near the epicentral area being at the coast. Unfortunately, no news of any aftershock was published for the towns affected by the highest intensities, which would help better constrain the epicenter.
(all above from ref #12934)
Other significant earthquakes nearby
Within 200 km, the deadliest first.
More
Significant earthquakes of 1885The 1800sRecent 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 2026-09-24. NCEI earthquake 10543.