September 27, 1974 Earthquake: Hokkaido, Kuril-Japan, Russia
A magnitude 6.7 earthquake struck Hokkaido, Kuril-Japan, Russia on September 27, 1974 at 05:47:29 UTC, 43 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
- September 27, 1974
- Time
- 05:47:29 UTC
- Place
- Hokkaido, Kuril-Japan, Russia
- Magnitude
- 6.7 (Ms)
- Magnitude scales
- Ms 6.7 · mb 6
- Focal depth
- 43 km (27 mi)
- Intensity
- IV, light shaking, on the Modified Mercalli scale
- Tsunami
- Yes: the tsunami it caused
- Epicenter
- 43.200° N, 146.700° E
- Country
- Russia
- Region
- Kamchatka and Kuril Islands
- USGS record
- The USGS’s page for this earthquake
Ms: surface-wave magnitude. mb: body-wave (P-wave) magnitude. 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.
Magnitude estimates
The magnitudes the USGS catalog lists for this earthquake, by scale and by who computed them. NCEI’s own scales are in the table above.
| Mag. | Scale | Computed by | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 6.7 | Ms, surface-wave | USGS National Earthquake Information Center | Preferred · Reviewed |
| 6.9 | Mw, moment | ISC-GEM global catalog | Final · ±0.4 |
Sources NCEI cites
The publications NCEI lists for this record. The numbers match the “reference #” notes in its account above.
- #417 Soloviev, S L., Ch. N. Go, and Kh. S. Kim (1992). Catalog of tsunamis in the Pacific, 1969-1982. Academy of Sciences of the USSR, Moscow, 208 p. Translated from Russian by Amerind Publishing Co. Pvt. Ltd., New Delhi, India, 1988 [Originally published in Russian in 1986].
- #150 Iida, Kumizi (1984). Catalog of tsunamis in Japan and its neighboring countries. Aichi Institute of Technology, Yachigusa, Yakusa-cho, Toyota-shi, 470-03, Japan, 52 p.
- #1053 National Earthquake Information Center (NEIC) (1971 to 2013). Preliminary Determination of Epicenters (PDE), a weekly and monthly publication, National Earthquake Information Center, U.S. Geological Survey, Golden, Colorado, 1971 to 2013.
Other significant earthquakes nearby
Within 200 km, the deadliest first.
- April 25, 1843, Yezo, Kushiro, Nemuro, Hokkaido, Japan
- June 17, 1973, Hokkaido Island, Japan
- October 4, 1994, Hokkaido, Kuril Islands, Japan, Russia
- March 22, 1894, Off Coast of Honshu, Japan
- May 28, 1938, E. Hokkaido Island, Japan
- June 26, 1973, Kuril Islands, Russia
- June 24, 1973, Kuril Islands, Russia
- September 11, 1935, Kuril Islands, Russia
- February 23, 1980, Kuril Islands, Russia
- January 29, 1968, Kuril Islands, Russia
- October 25, 1881, Hokkaido Island, Japan
- December 25, 1900, Kuril Islands, Russia
- November 18, 1896, Kuril Islands, Russia
- June 4, 1893, Kuril Islands, Russia
- June 10, 1975, Hokkaido, Kuril-Japan, Russia
More
Significant earthquakes of 1974The 1900sEvery quake the USGS located in 1974Recent 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 6445. The written accounts and the magnitude estimates are from the USGS earthquake catalog, event usp0000862, matched to this record by time, place and magnitude.