November 14, 1981 Earthquake: Aswan, Egypt

Name: November 14, 1981 Earthquake: Aswan, Egypt
Start: 1981-11-14
Location: Aswan, Egypt

November 14, 1981 · M5.3 · 11 houses destroyed

A magnitude 5.3 earthquake struck Aswan, Egypt on November 14, 1981 at 09:05:29 UTC, 10 km below the surface.

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 14, 1981
Time: 09:05:29 UTC
Place: Aswan, Egypt
Magnitude: 5.3 (Ms)
Focal depth: 10 km (6 mi)
Intensity: 8 on the Modified Mercalli scale
Tsunami: None recorded
Epicenter: 23.686° N, 32.604° E
Country: Egypt

The toll

Damage: Limited (under about $1 million)
Houses destroyed: 11
Houses damaged: 11

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.

Significant earthquakes of 1981 The 1900s Every quake the USGS located in 1981 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 2026-09-24. NCEI earthquake 4933.