January 24, 1927 Earthquake: North Sea, Norway

Name: January 24, 1927 Earthquake: North Sea, Norway
Start: 1927-01-24
Location: North Sea, Norway

January 24, 1927 · M5.5

A magnitude 5.5 earthquake struck North Sea, Norway on January 24, 1927 at 05:18:18 UTC, 15 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: January 24, 1927
Time: 05:18:18 UTC
Place: North Sea, Norway
Magnitude: 5.5 (Mw)
Magnitude scales: Mw 5.5 · Ms 5.3 · ML 5.7 · Unspecified 5.1
Focal depth: 15 km (9 mi)
Intensity: V, moderate shaking, on the Modified Mercalli scale
Tsunami: Yes: the tsunami it caused
Epicenter: 59.423° N, 3.414° E
Country: Norway
Region: Northern and Western Europe
USGS record: The USGS’s page for this earthquake

Mw: moment magnitude, based on the slip on the fault and the area that slipped. Ms: surface-wave magnitude. ML: local magnitude, the original Richter scale. Unspecified: the method was not stated in the published sources. NCEI’s headline magnitude is the best of these for the earthquake.

The toll

The record gives no deaths, injuries or damage for this earthquake.

What the record says

NCEI’s account, from the sources it cites.

1927-01-24 05:18:18.31 UTC, 59.423 N 3.414 E, magnitude 5.52 Mw (reference #10476, v. 12.1)

magnitude of 5.7 ML earthquake with an epicentre in the Viking Graben area was felt over much of Scotland and also along the coasts of Norway […]The earthquake had been extensively felt in Helmsdale between 5.17 to 5.20 a.m (reference #14326)

1927-01-24 05:18 UTC, 59.9 N 1.8 E, magnitude 5.3 Ms (reference #14514)

Sources NCEI cites

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

#14514 Uski, M., Oinonen, K., Lund, B., Soosalu, H., Ottemöller, L., Sorensen, M.B., Voss, P.H. and Korja, A. (2025). FENCAT, an update of the Fennoscandian earthquake catalogue. Geophysical Journal International, 242(3), ggaf242. DOI: 10.1093/gji/ggaf242
#10476 International Seismological Centre (2013). Final Scientific Report of the ISC-GEM Instrumental Earthquake Catalogue, ISC-GEM Global Instrumental earthquake Catalogue (1900-2021). Versions 1-12 downloaded beginning 18 March 2013. DOI: 10.31905/D808B825
#14326 Long, D. (2015). A Catalogue of tsunamis reported in the UK. British Geological Survey Internal Report IR/15/043, 63pp. Link

Significant earthquakes of 1927 The 1900s Every quake the USGS located in 1927 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 10980. The written accounts and the magnitude estimates are from the USGS earthquake catalog, event iscgem909068, matched to this record by time, place and magnitude.