November 8, 1918 Earthquake: Kuril Islands, Russia
A magnitude 7.8 earthquake struck Kuril Islands, Russia on November 8, 1918 at 04:38 UTC, 25 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
- November 8, 1918
- Time
- 04:38 UTC
- Place
- Kuril Islands, Russia
- Magnitude
- 7.8 (Ms)
- Focal depth
- 25 km (16 mi)
- Tsunami
- Yes: the tsunami it caused
- Epicenter
- 44.500° N, 151.500° E
- Country
- Russia
- Region
- Kamchatka and Kuril Islands
- USGS record
- The USGS’s page for this earthquake
The toll
The record gives no deaths, injuries or damage for this earthquake.
Sources NCEI cites
The publications NCEI lists for this record. The numbers match the “reference #” notes in its account above.
- #130 Gutenberg, B. and C.F. Richter (1965). Seismicity of the earth and associated phenomena. Princeton University Press, 1954 (second edition); Hafner Publishing Company, New York and London (facsimile edition), 310 p.
- #1182 Latter, J.H. (1969). Natural Disasters, Advancement of Science 25 (126), p. 362-380.
- #237 Lander, James F., Patricia A. Lockridge, and Michael J. Kozuch (1993). Tsunamis affecting the West Coast of the United States, 1806-1992, KGRD no. 29, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, National Geophysical Data Center, Boulder, Colorado, USA, September, 242 p.
- #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.
- #413 Soloviev, S.L., and M.D. Ferchev (1961). Summary of Data on Tsunamis in the USSR. Bulletin of the Council for Seismology, Academy of Sciences of the USSR [Byulleten Soveta po Seismologii Akademiya Nauk, SSSR], no. 9, 23-55, Moscow, USSR, 37 p.
Other significant earthquakes nearby
Within 200 km, the deadliest first.
- September 7, 1918, Kuril Islands, Russia
- June 29, 1780, Kuril Islands, Russia
- October 20, 1963, Kuril Islands, Russia
- March 19, 1967, Kuril Islands, Russia
- December 22, 1991, Kamchatka, Kuril Islands, Russia
- November 6, 1908, Kuril Islands, Russia
- October 13, 1963, Kuril Islands, Russia
- October 27, 1959, Kamchatka, Russia
- February 21, 1937, Kuril Islands, Russia
- June 21, 1847, Kuril Islands, Russia
- January 19, 1913, Kuril Islands, Russia
- December 3, 1995, Iturup, Matua, Kunashir, Kuril Islands, Russia
- October 12, 1963, Kuril Islands, Russia
- October 11, 1956, Kuril Islands, Russia
- January 21, 1976, Kuril Islands, Russia
More
Significant earthquakes of 1918The 1900sEvery quake the USGS located in 1918Recent 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 3125. The written accounts and the magnitude estimates are from the USGS earthquake catalog, event iscgem913336, matched to this record by time, place and magnitude.