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Feb 13, 2018 · At 19:11:14 UTC, the largest earthquake in recorded history occurred. The earthquake triggered a tsunami that affected most of the Pacific, causing fatalities in Hawaii, Japan, and the Philippines. In Chile alone, it killed 1,655 people and left more than 2,000,000 homeless.
- 1906 San Francisco Earthquake
At 5:12 am on April 18, 1906, a devastating earthquake hit...
- Major Earthquake Zones Worldwide
The most powerful earthquake ever recorded took place in...
- World's Worst Tsunamis
Sparked by an offshore magnitude 9.0 earthquake on March 11,...
- 1906 San Francisco Earthquake
- Valdivia, Chile; 1960; magnitude 9.5. Approximately 1,655 people died in the largest earthquake ever recorded, which struck Valdivia, Chile, on May 22, 1960.
- Prince William Sound, Alaska; 1964; magnitude 9.2. This great earthquake and ensuing tsunami took 128 lives and caused about $311 million in property loss.
- Sumatra-Andaman Islands, 2004, magnitude 9.1. This quake was the third-largest earthquake in history and the largest since the 1964 earthquake in Prince William Sound, Alaska (see #2).
- Tōhoku, Japan; 2011; magnitude 9.1. On March 11, 2011, a magnitude 9.1 quake triggered a tsunami that left more than 15,700 people dead, more than 4,600 missing, over 5,300 injured and more than 130,900 displaced, according to the USGS.
- Overview
- The Shaanxi Earthquake on the Richter Scale
- Preparing for Future Earthquakes
- HISTORY Vault: Engineering Disasters
Estimates say it killed 830,000 people.
Humans have documented earthquakes for nearly 4,000 years. Of those recorded, the deadliest occurred in China. On January 23, 1556, a powerful quake rocked the province of Shaanxi and the neighboring province of Shanxi, killing an estimated 830,000 people.
1989 San Francisco Earthquake
Historical records often refer to the 1556 Shaanxi earthquake as the Jiajing Great Earthquake because it occurred during Emperor Jiajing’s reign in the Ming dynasty. The approximate death toll comes from local annals that also tracked 26 earthquakes in the region. In those records, the earthquake is starkly different from others: they describe leveled mountains, floods, fires that burned for days and a drastically altered landscape. The annals estimated that some counties lost about 60 percent of their population.
Map displaying the propagation of seismic waves after the Sumatra quake at the Geo Science Center in Potsdam.
After the development of the Richter scale in the 1930s, scientists theorized that the Shaanxi earthquake was likely between 8.0 to 8.3 in magnitude—not the strongest ever recorded, but no less destructive. The most powerful earthquake recorded on the Richter scale was the 9.5-magnitude Valdivia Earthquake that struck Chile in 1960, according to the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). The seismic event created a tsunami which together killed an estimated 5,700 people. The 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami registered a 9.3 magnitude.
The scholar Qin Keda, who survived the earthquake, wrote about his experience and came up with safety tips for people to follow in the event of another disaster. “At the very beginning of the earthquake, people indoors should not go out immediately," Keda wrote. "Just crouch down and wait for chances. Even if the nest is collapsed, some eggs in it may still be kept intact.”
Qin Keda’s advice to stay indoors mirrors the USGS's advice. In a section of its website titled “What should I do DURING an earthquake,” the USGS says that if you are already inside during an earthquake, it is not safer to head for the door. Running during an earthquake is very dangerous, and being inside can protect you from flying debris.
What happens when engineering goes horribly wrong? Engineering Disasters goes beyond the headlines to uncover what really happened in the most notorious engineering accidents.
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The 1960 Valdivia earthquake and tsunami (Spanish: Terremoto de Valdivia) or the Great Chilean earthquake (Gran terremoto de Chile) on 22 May 1960 was the most powerful earthquake ever recorded.
- 1960 Valdivia Earthquake – 9.5. Casualties: 1,000-6,000 dead. Also known as the Great Chilean earthquake (Spanish: Gran terremoto de Chile), it was the most powerful earthquake ever recorded.
- 1964 Great Alaska Earthquake – 9.2. Casualties: 139 dead. The 1964 Great Alaska earthquake (also known as the Good Friday earthquake) occurred at 5:36 PM (local time, 3:36 UTC) on Good Friday, March 27 in the Prince William Sound region of Alaska.
- 2004 Sumatra Earthquake – 9.1. Casualties: 230,000 – 280,000 dead. One of the deadliest natural disasters in recent history, the 2004 Sumatra Earthquake, also known as the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake, occurred at 00:58:53 UTC on 26 December with the epicenter off the west coast of Sumatra, Indonesia.
- 2011 Tōhoku Earthquake – 9.1. Casualties: 15,894 deaths, 6,152 injured, and 2,562 people missing. On 11 March 2011 Friday, at 14:46 with the local time (05:46 UTC), a massive undersea megathrust earthquake (see notes 1) off the coast of Japan occurred.
Nov 13, 2017 · The most powerful earthquake ever recorded occurred on May 22, 1960, near Valdivia, Chile in South America. It is referred to as either the Valdivia Earthquake or the Great Chilean Earthquake.
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Aug 14, 2024 · The Chile earthquake of 1960, the largest quake ever recorded in the world, produced a tsunami that crossed the Pacific Ocean to Japan, where it killed more than 100 people. 1963 Skopje , Macedonia
