April 27, 1931 Earthquake: Zangezur, Nakhitchevan, Armenia

Name: April 27, 1931 Earthquake: Zangezur, Nakhitchevan, Armenia
Start: 1931-04-27
Location: Zangezur, Nakhitchevan, Armenia

April 27, 1931 · M6.3 · 2,890 deaths

A magnitude 6.3 earthquake struck Zangezur, Nakhitchevan, Armenia on April 27, 1931 at 16:50:00 UTC, 22 km below the surface. It killed 2,890 people.

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: April 27, 1931
Time: 16:50:00 UTC
Place: Zangezur, Nakhitchevan, Armenia
Magnitude: 6.3 (Ms)
Focal depth: 22 km (14 mi)
Intensity: VIII, severe shaking, on the Modified Mercalli scale
Tsunami: None recorded
Epicenter: 39.200° N, 46.000° E
Country: Armenia
Region: Central Asia and Caucasus
USGS record: The USGS’s page for this earthquake

The toll

Deaths: 2,890
Damage: Extreme (about $25 million or more)

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 1931 Zangezur earthquake occurred on April 27 at 20:50:45 local time with a moment magnitude of 6.5. The earthquake was located in the Zangezur Mountains near the boundary between southwestern Armenia and Azerbaijan's exclave, the Nakhichivan Autonomous Republic. Both territories were part of the Soviet Union at that time.

Text from Wikipedia, “1931 Zangezur earthquake”, 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.

Reference #223 lists epicenter 39.2 N, 46 E, depth 22 km, magnitude 6.3, MMI VIII, some deaths, severe damage.

Reference #1192 lists epicenter 39.3 N, 46 E, depth 15 km, magnitude 6.3, MMI VIII, 2890 deaths, extreme damage.

Sources NCEI cites

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

#1192 Berberian, Manuel (1977). Geological Survey of Iran, Tectonic and Seismotectonic Research Section, Report no. 40, Contribution to the Seismotectonics of Iran (Part III), Ministry of Industry and Mines, Tehran, Iran.
#223 Kondorskaya, N.V., and N.V. Shebalin, editors (1982). New catalog of strong earthquakes in the U.S.S.R. from ancient times through 1977. Report SE-31, World Data Center A for Solid Earth Geophysics, NOAA, National Geophysical Data Center, Boulder, Colorado, USA, 608 p.

Other significant earthquakes nearby

Within 200 km, the deadliest first.

Significant earthquakes of 1931 The 1900s Every quake the USGS located in 1931 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 3466. The written accounts and the magnitude estimates are from the USGS earthquake catalog, event iscgem906750, matched to this record by time, place and magnitude.