List of earthquakes
From Wikipedia, a free encyclopedia written in simple English for easy reading.
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 | – | ||
| 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; see that article for more. | |
| 1693 - January 11 | Catania, Italy | 60,000 | – | ||
| 1700 - January 26 | Cascadia, North America | ? | 9.0 | See: 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 | mentioned by Voltaire in Candide See: 1755 Lisbon earthquake | |
| 1811-1812 - December 16--February 7 | New Madrid Earthquake, United States | hundreds | 8.0 | U.S. Geological Survey[1] | |
| 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 eathquake | |
| 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 | ? | 7.9 | See: San Francisco earthquake of 1906 | |
| 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 | see Great Kanto Earthquake | |
| 1925 - June 29 | Santa Barbara, California | ? | 6.3 | Santa Barbara earthquakes | |
| 1927 - May 22 | Nan-Shan, China | 200,000 | 8.3 | ||
| 1931 | Managua, Nicaragua | ? | ? | ||
| 1931 - February 3 | Napier, New Zealand | 258 | 7.9 | see 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 | 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 | 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 | Known as the Great Chilean Earthquake; 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, known as the Good Friday Earthquake | |
| 1965 - April 29 | Seattle, Washington | 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 (LA), CA, 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 located 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 | North-Western Armenia | 25,000 | 6.9 | ||
| 1989 - October 17 | Loma Prieta (Santa Cruz) California | 63 | 7.1 | 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. See Loma Prieta earthquake. | |
| 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 | ||
| 1993 - September 29 | Maharashtra, India | 9,748 | 6.4 | ||
| 1994 - January 17 | Northridge (Los Angeles), California, United States | 57 | 6.7 | Most financially damaging quake in US history. See: 1994 Northridge Earthquake | |
| 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 | |
| 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 | 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 1 person killed was a pedestrian hit by a car while sweeping broken glass. 300+ injured | |
| 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. 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 feb. 2, 2005) | 9.3 | About 150.000 2005-01-02. More at 2004_Indian_Ocean_earthquake |
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.
