October 2026 in numbers

The strongest earthquakes

• M 7.7, Panama, 9 October (USGS), with an M 6.6 aftershock the same day. Panama alone accounts for 51 records of magnitude 4 or more this month, most of them aftershocks.
• M 7.0, near Nagqu, China, 22 October (USGS).
• Bonin Islands, Japan, 25 October: M 7.0 for the Japan Meteorological Agency, M 6.5 for USGS. Agencies measure differently; both figures are theirs.

The second half was busier

Records of magnitude 5 or more by week: 34 in the week of 5 October, 29 in the week of 12 October, 58 in the week of 19 October and 51 in the last six days of the month.

Where the earthquakes of magnitude 4 or more were

1. Indonesia137
2. Mexico113
3. Panama51
4. Japan48
5. Philippines40
6. Russia35
7. Papua New Guinea28
8. China28
9. Chile28
10. New Zealand19

Earthquakes far offshore have no country here and are not in this list.

Where the fire records were

1. Brazil5,498
2. Indonesia1,716
3. Tanzania1,554
4. United States1,372
5. Zambia1,231
6. Madagascar995
7. Mozambique988
8. Angola711
9. DR Congo628
10. Peru570

Most of these are heat seen by satellite, which cannot tell a wildfire from a controlled burn. October is the burning season across central and southern Africa and in the Brazilian Amazon.

The storms

Typhoon Champi crossed the western Pacific from 14 to 23 October, passing Guam and reaching Japan and Taiwan. Super Typhoon In-fa followed from 26 October near the Northern Mariana Islands. Tropical Cyclone Arnab reached India at the end of the month. In the eastern Pacific, Hurricane Nolo reached category 3 on 4 October.

How to read these numbers

A record is what a public agency published and this site kept; 61 different feeds had something to publish this month. One shock can have more than one agency's record, and small earthquakes are counted far better in the United States, Japan and Europe than elsewhere, so compare countries only at magnitude 4 and above, and even then with care. How records are kept and rated is in the methodology.

These numbers may be quoted freely, naming Calamity.live. For a town's own numbers see its page; for anything else, write to us.