Guatemala is located in a area prone to earthquakes, it is been said that a Big One occurs every 50 years. The department of Peten, where most magnificent Mayan ruins are located is not sismic, and usually there are no earthquakes in that area. This is a list of some of the important events.
| Date | Intensity | Facts about the earthquake |
| September 10, 1541 | n/a | Oldest known news printed in the Americas, records the event on Saturday 10th and Sunday 11th of September 1941. The event was not an earthquake, but a landslide. |
| February 18, 1651 | n/a | Pacaya Volcao Eruption and earthquake |
| August 27, 1717 | n/a | Earthquakes and two volcano eruption |
| July 29, 1773 | n/a | Known as Santa Marta Earthquakes |
| 1818 | n/a | Santa Maria Volcano caused this earthquake |
| April, 18, 1902 | 7.5 | 8:23 PM Damages reported are 200 people, a number hard to believe. Most damage were in Quetzaltenango and Solola. |
| March 8, 1913 | n/a | 8:55 AM It destroyed Cuilapa in Santa Rosa, reported “a lot” of victims and was very localized. |
| 1917-1918 | n/a | Series of earthquakes of different intensities. |
| August 6, 1942 | 8.3 | Damages all over the the bottom half of the country. |
| February 20, 1959 | n/a | 6:16 PM, Biggest damages were in Ixcan, El Quiche. |
| February 4, 1976 | 7.5 | 3:03 AM. The deadliest earthquake ever recorded, with official numbers around 25,000 deaths and great economic losses. |
| October 11, 1985 | 5.0 | This was a very low magnitude earthquake, but it was very superficial and almost completely destroyed the city of Uspantan. |
| 1991 | 5.3 | Pochuta |
| 1995 | 5.3 | Tucuru |
| 1998 | 5.8 | Pacific Ocean |
| June 13, 2007 | 6.7 | Pacific Ocean |
| 2008 | 5.7 | Pacifi Ocean |
| 2009 | 6.2 | Patzun |
| 2010 | 5.6 | San Mateo Ixtatan |
Sources:
http://www.insivumeh.gob.gt/geofisica/indice%20sismo.htm
http://blogynuevastecnologias.blogspot.com/2007/08/historia-del-periodismo-universal.html
http://www.saladeprensa.org/art575.htm
http://www.archive.org/stream/laamericacentral01anto/laamericacentral01anto_djvu.txt