September 7, 1918 Earthquake: Kuril Islands, Russia

Name: September 7, 1918 Earthquake: Kuril Islands, Russia
Start: 1918-09-07
Location: Kuril Islands, Russia

September 7, 1918 · M8.3 · 23 deaths

A magnitude 8.3 earthquake struck Kuril Islands, Russia on September 7, 1918 at 17:16 UTC, 33 km below the surface. It killed 23 people, counting the tsunami it caused.

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: September 7, 1918
Time: 17:16 UTC
Place: Kuril Islands, Russia
Magnitude: 8.3 (Ms)
Focal depth: 33 km (21 mi)
Tsunami: Yes: the tsunami it caused
Epicenter: 45.500° N, 151.500° E
Country: Russia
Region: Kamchatka and Kuril Islands
USGS record: The USGS’s page for this earthquake

The toll

Deaths: 23 with its tsunami and other effects
Injuries: 7 with its tsunami and other effects
Damage: Moderate (about $1 to $5 million) with its tsunami and other effects
Houses destroyed: Some (about 51 to 100) with its tsunami and other effects
Houses damaged: 19 with its tsunami and other effects

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.

From Wikipedia

The 1918 Kuril Islands earthquake occurred on 8 September at 04:16 MAGT (17:16 UTC on 7 September), with a moment magnitude of 8.1. The earthquake generated a tsunami that affected across the North Pacific Ocean killing 23 people and injuring seven others.

Text from Wikipedia, “1918 Kuril Islands earthquake and tsunami”, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Quoted as written; the full article has the rest.

What the record says

NCEI’s account, from the sources it cites.

September 7, 1918, 17:16:13 UTC, 45.5 N, 15.5 E, shallow depth, magnitude 8.3 MS. (reference #88)

September 7, 1918, Kurile, magnitude 8.25 MS. (reference #1314)

Sources NCEI cites

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

#88 Duda, Seweryn J. (1965). Secular seismic energy release in the circum-Pacific belt. Tectonophysics, vol. 2, no. 5, p. 409-452. DOI:10.1016/0040-1951(65)90035-1
#79 Iida, Kumizi, Doak C. Cox, and George Pararas-Carayannis (1967). Preliminary Catalog of Tsunamis Occurring in the Pacific Ocean, HIG-67-10, Hawaii Institute of Geophysics, University of Hawaii, Honolulu, Hawaii, 275 p. Bibliography to the Preliminary Catalog of Tsunamis Occurring in the Pacific Ocean, December 1967, 27 p.
#1314 Kanamori, Hiroo (1977). The energy release of great earthquakes. Journal of Geophysical Research, vol. 82, p. 2981-2987.

Other significant earthquakes nearby

Within 200 km, the deadliest first.

Significant earthquakes of 1918 The 1900s Every quake the USGS located in 1918 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 2026-10-01. NCEI earthquake 3118. The written accounts and the magnitude estimates are from the USGS earthquake catalog, event iscgem913260, matched to this record by time, place and magnitude.