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List of earthquakes

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 23 Caucaso and Shemakha, Italy 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
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, Missouri, 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, USA 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,USA 27 7.6 See: 1872 Lone Pine 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, USA 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
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 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, USA 125 9.2 Most powerful earthquake in U.S. history, known as the Good Friday Earthquake
1966 Tashkent, Uzbekistan -
1968 Sicily, Italy; Gibellina, Belice -
1970 - May 31 Northern Peru 66,794 7.7
1972 - December 23 Managua, Nicaragua 10,000 the city was almost completely destroyed
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
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, USA 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
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 Seattle, Washington 0 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 0 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 ? 8.0
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.

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.

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