List of earthquakes
| Date | Site | Deaths | Magnitude in Richter | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| May - 2023 | Bangladesh and Mayanmar | More or Less 101 | Cyclone MOCHA was an extremely deadly and intense tropical cyclone that affected Myanmar and Bangladesh |
 | This article needs to be updated. (September 2021) |
The following is a list of major earthquakes:
| Date | Site | Deaths | Magnitude in Richter |
Comments | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 464 BC | Sparta, Greece | ? | – | Led to a helot uprising and strained relations with Athens, one of the factors that led to the Peloponnesian War | ||
| 226 BC | Rhodes, Greece | ? | – | Destroyed Colossus of Rhodes and city of Kameiros | ||
| 365 | Cyrene, Libya | ? | – | |||
| 526 - May 20 | Antiochia, Syria | 250,000 | – | |||
| 856 | Corinth, Greece | 45,000 | – | |||
| 1138 | Aleppo, Syria | 230,000 | – | 1138 Aleppo earthquake | ||
| 1268 | Cilicia, Asia Minor | 60,000 | – | |||
| 1290 - September 27 | Chihli, China | 100,000 | – | |||
| 1556 - January 23 | Shaanxi and Kansu, China | 850,000 | 9.0 | The most devastating earthquake in history | ||
| 1667 - November 25 | Caucaso and Shemakha | 80,000 | – | |||
| 1692 - June 7 | Port Royal, Jamaica | 1,000-3,000 | – | Destroyed and submerged most of Port Royal. | ||
| 1693 - January 11 | Catania, Italy | 60,000 | – | |||
| 1700 - January 26 | Cascadia, North America | ? | 9.0 | 1700 Cascadia earthquake | ||
| 1730 - December 30 | Hokkaido, Japan | 137,000 | – | |||
| 1737 - October 11 | Calcutta, India | 300,000 | – | |||
| 1755 - November 1 | Lisbon, Portugal | 60,000 | 8.0 | 1755 Lisbon earthquake mentioned by Voltaire in Candide | ||
| 1811-1812 - December 16--February 7 | New Madrid, Missouri, United States | ? | 8.0 | U.S. Geological Survey[1] Archived 2006-01-27 at the Wayback Machine 1811-12 New Madrid Earthquake destroyed half of the city of New Madrid. Damage estimates exceed one billion dollars. Lasted for two to three minutes | ||
| 1822 - September 5 | Echigo, Japan | 30,000 | – | |||
| 1855 | Wellington, New Zealand | 1 | 8.2 | |||
| 1857 - January 9 | Fort Tejon, California, United States | 1 | 7.9 | 350 kilometers of the San Andreas Fault ruptured | ||
| 1868 - August 13-15 | Ecuador and Peru | 40,000 | – | |||
| 1872 - March 26 | Lone Pine, California, United States | 27 | 7.6 | See: 1872 Lone Pine earthquake | ||
| 1884 - April 22 | Colchester, England | 1 | 5.2 | The UK's most destructive earthquake | ||
| 1887 - February 23 | French Riviera | 2,000 | – | |||
| 1887 - May 3 | Sonora, Mexico | 42 | 7.4 | |||
| 1905 - April 4 | Kangra, India | 370,000. | ||||
| 1906 - April 18 | San Francisco, California, United States | 3,000 | 7.9 | Fires broke out in many parts the town. Many buildings were destroyed by the earthquake and fires. Damage estimates top 350 billion dollars. Lasted for about 2 minutes. | ||
| 1908 - December 27 | Messina, Italy | 86,926 | 7.5 | |||
| 1920 - December 16 | Gansu, China | 100,000 | 8.6 | |||
| 1923 - September 1 | Tokyo/Yokohama, Japan | 200,000 | 8.3 | Great Kantō earthquake damage estimates exceeded one billion US dollars. Estimated to have shook for 5 minutes | ||
| 1925 - June 29 | Santa Barbara, California, United States | ? | 6.3 | Santa Barbara earthquakes Archived 2006-01-09 at the Wayback Machine | ||
| 1927 - May 22 | Nan-Shan, China | 200,000 | 8.3 | |||
| 1931 | Managua, Nicaragua | ? | ? | |||
| 1931 - February 3 | Napier, New Zealand | 258 | 7.9 | Napier earthquake | ||
| 1932 - December 26 | Kansu, China | 70,000 | 7.6 | |||
| 1935 - May 31 | Quetta, India | 50,000 | 7.5 | |||
| 1948 | Ashgabat, Turkmenistan | 86,926 | 7.5 | |||
| 1949 - April 13 | Olympia, Washington, United States | 8 | 7.1 | See Nisqually earthquake | ||
| 1949 - August 5 | Ecuador | 6,000 | na | |||
| 1953 - August 12 | Kefalonia, [Greece | 476 | 7.3 | Destroyed most of the island, major damage on Zante and Lefkas. | ||
| 1958 - July 10 | Alaskan Panhandle, United States | 5 | 7.9 | Resulting landslide triggered largest-ever recorded water wave at Lituya Bay, Alaska. | ||
| 1960 - February 29 | Agadir, Morocco | 15,000 | 6.7 | Almost completely destroyed Agadir. | ||
| 1960 - May 22 | Chile | 1,500 | 9.5 | The Great Chilean Earthquake was the most powerful earthquake ever recorded. Tsunamis caused deaths as far away as Hawaii and Japan. | ||
| 1964 | Anchorage, Alaska, United States | 125 | 9.2 | Most powerful earthquake in U.S. history; the Good Friday earthquake. Damage estimates are about 311 million dollars. Shook for 4–7 minutes. | ||
| 1965 - April 29 | Seattle, Washington, United States | 7 | 6.5 | See Nisqually earthquake | ||
| 1966 | Tashkent, Uzbekistan | ? | - | |||
| 1968 | Sicily, Italy; Gibellina, Belice | ? | - | |||
| 1970 - May 31 | Ancash, Peru | 66,794 | 7.7 | |||
| 1971 -Feb 9 | Sylmar, Los Angeles, California, United States | 65 | 6.6-6.7 | $500M property damage Primary San Fernando Fault; secondary Santa Susana (East)
MFRegan, 2006 | ||
| 1972 - December 23 | Managua, Nicaragua | 10,000 | ? | The city was almost completely destroyed; the quake contributed to the Sandinista uprising of the 1970s | ||
| 1976 - July 28 | Tangshan, China | 400,000 | 8.2 | |||
| 1977 - March 4 | southern and eastern Europe, Romania | 1,50 | ? | |||
| 1980 - November 23 | southern Italy | 4,800 | 6.8-7.0 | |||
| 1985 - September 19 | Mexico City, Mexico | ~10,000 | 8.1 | Devastated a significant part of the city. Worst disaster in Mexico City's history. The epicenter was in the coasts of Michoacán. | ||
| 1985 - September 20 | Mexico City, Mexico | hundreds | 7.6 | Second earthquake in two days; caused massive hysteria and more deaths | ||
| 1986 - October 10 | San Salvador, El Salvador | ~1,500 | 7.5 | |||
| 1988 - December 7 | Nortwestern Armenia | 25,000 | 6.9 | |||
| 1989 - October 17 | Loma Prieta (Santa Cruz) California, United States | 63 | 7.1 | The Loma Prieta earthquake caused the collapse of the Nimitz Freeway in Oakland, California, and damage to the Bay Bridge in San Francisco. Largest quake on the San Andreas Fault since the 1906 San Francisco quake. | ||
| 1990 - June 20 | North-Western Iran | 50,000 | 7.7 | |||
| 1990 - July 16 | Philippines | 1600 | 7.7 | |||
| 1992 - March 13 | Eastern Turkey | ~540 | 6.8 | |||
| 1992 | Cape Mendocino, California, United States | 18 | Damage estimates top 66 billion dollars. Shaking lasted for about 12 seconds. | |||
| 1993 - September 29 | Maharashtra, India | 9,748 | 6.4 | |||
| 1994 - January 17 | Northridge, Los Angeles, California, United States | 57 | 6.7 | The 1994 Northridge earthquake was the most financially damaging quake in US history. See: | ||
| 1995 - January 17 | Kobe, Osaka, and Kyoto, Japan | 5,477 | 7.2 | called the Great Hanshin earthquake. The quake lasted 20 seconds and left 275,000 people homeless. Damage estimates are approximately ten trillion yen or $200 billion US dollars. | ||
| 1995 - May 28 | Neftegorsk, Russia | ~2,000 | 7.6 | Killed 2/3rd of the town's population | ||
| 1997 - May 10-11 | Northern Iran | 4,000 | 7.5 | |||
| 1998 - February 4-8 | Takhar, Afghanistan | 2,323 | 6.1 | |||
| 1998 - May 30 | Afghanistan | 4,700 | 6.9 | |||
| 1999 - August 17 | Turkey | 15,000 | 7.8 | |||
| 1999 - September 20 | Taiwan | 2,474 | 7.6 | |||
| 2000 - February 13 | El Salvador | 400 | 6.6 | |||
| 2001 - January 13 | El Salvador | 5,000 | 7.7 | |||
| 2001 - January 26 | Gujarat, India | 20,103 | 7.7 | |||
| 2001 - February 28 | Olympia, Washington, United States | 6.8 | Some damage to older buildings, masonry, and roads, but no deaths. See Nisqually Earthquake | |||
| 2001 - June 23 | Southern Peru | 10s; many old buildings | 7.9 | |||
| 2002 - November 3 | Central Alaska | 7.9 | Sparsely populated area; damage to structures/roads but no serious injuries | |||
| 2003 - May 21 | Algeria | 2,000 | 6.8 | |||
| 2003 - September 25 | Hokkaido, Japan | 1 | 8.0 | The person killed was a pedestrian hit by a car while sweeping broken glass. 300+ injured | ||
| 2003 - December 22 | Paso Robles, California, United States | 2 | 6.5 | Historical buildings destroyed. | ||
| 2003 - December 26 | Bam, southwestern Iran | 40,000 or more | 6.6 | Nearly 75% of city levelled to the ground, 40,000 lives lost and 15,000 injured. | ||
| 2004 - February 24 | 295 kilometres east-North-east of Rabat, Morocco near the city of Al-Hoceima | 564 | 6.5 | 300+ injured and 30,000 homeless. Most killed are women and children as many local men work overseas | ||
| 2004 - April 6 | Hindu Kush mountains, northeast Afghanistan | At least 1 | 6.8 | Death toll may be higher | ||
| 2004 - May 3 | 515 kilometres south-southeast of Santiago, Chile | 6.6 | Measured 6 on Mercalli scale at the epicentre | |||
| 2004 - May 28 | 70 kilometres north of Tehran | 45+ | 6.2 | 400+ injured. 80 villages damaged. Most damage near Alamout. | ||
| 2004 - December 26 | Indian Ocean | 150.000 (by February 2, 2005) | 9.3 | About 150.000 killed by 2005-01-02 in the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake | ||
| 2005 - October 8 | Pakistan | 74.500 (by Aug. 16, 2007) | 7.6 | More at 2005 Kashmir earthquake | ||
| 2006 - December 26 | Taiwan | 2 | 7.0-7.2 | More at 2006 Hengchun earthquake | ||
| 2007 - August 15 | Peru | 48 | 7.9 | 350+ injured 2007 Peru earthquake | ||
| 2008 - May 12 | Sichuan, China | 87,419 | 8.0 | 69,197 dead, 18,222 missing and 374,176 injured in the 2008 Sichuan earthquake | ||
| 2010 - January 12 | Haiti | 320,000 | 7.0 | Fourth deadliest earthquake in history 2010 Haiti earthquake | ||
| 2010 - February 27 | Maule Region, Chile | 214+ | 8.8 | 214 + | ||
| 2010 - March 11 | Pichilemu, Chile | 1 | 6.9 | The 2010 Pichilemu earthquake caused a small tsunami provoking minor damage in the Pichilemu area. | ||
| 2010 - September 4 | Canterbury, New Zealand | 0 | 7.1 | 2+ injured, widespread structural damage to buildings and infrastructure. | ||
| 2011 - February 22 | Canterbury, New Zealand | 185 | 6.3 | Considered an aftershock from the 2010 Canterbury earthquake the earthquake registered a lower magnitude but was much more damaging. the intensity and violence of the ground shaking was measured to be VIII on the MMI and among the strongest ever recorded globally in an urban area due to the shallowness and proximity of the epicentre. The vertical shaking is estimated to be three times greater than would be expected in a 1 in 500 year earthquake. More at 2011 Canterbury earthquake | ||
| 2011 - March 11 | Honshu, Japan | 15,867 | 9.0 | Produced Tsunami waves which devastated shores in Northern Japan and caused damage as far away as the Pacific Coast of the United States.The most economically expensive earthquake in history. |
The Richter scale was adopted in 1935, and was used in the above table also about earlier earthquakes at a merely indicative title. Earthquakes' effects were once measured after the Mercalli scale, which regards the practical damages that a seismic event causes to infrastructures and houses, and a sort of comparison between the two scale is now in use, especially for ancient events.
Other websites
[change | change source]- USGS list of current earthquakes Archived 2005-01-23 at the Wayback Machine
- Earthquakes Canada
- Recent New Zealand earthquakes Archived 2007-03-21 at the Wayback Machine