Largest Earthquakes in the World Since 1900
This webpage is updated in January of each year to incorporate any relevant data from the previous year.
Google Earth KML
(requires Google Earth)
| Location | Date UTC | Magnitude | Lat. | Long. | Reference | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | Chile | 1960 05 22 | 9.5 | -38.29 | -73.05 | Kanamori, 1977 |
| 2. | Prince William Sound, Alaska | 1964 03 28 | 9.2 | 61.02 | -147.65 | Kanamori, 1977 |
| 3. | Off the West Coast of Northern Sumatra | 2004 12 26 | 9.1 | 3.30 | 95.78 | Park et al., 2005 |
| 4. | Near the East Coast of Honshu, Japan | 2011 03 11 | 9.0 | 38.322 | 142.369 | PDE |
| 5. | Kamchatka | 1952 11 04 | 9.0 | 52.76 | 160.06 | Kanamori, 1977 |
| 6. | Offshore Maule, Chile | 2010 02 27 | 8.8 | -35.846 | -72.719 | PDE |
| 7. | Off the Coast of Ecuador | 1906 01 31 | 8.8 | 1.0 | -81.5 | Kanamori, 1977 |
| 8. | Rat Islands, Alaska | 1965 02 04 | 8.7 | 51.21 | 178.50 | Kanamori, 1977 |
| 9. | Northern Sumatra, Indonesia | 2005 03 28 | 8.6 | 2.08 | 97.01 | PDE |
| 10. | Assam - Tibet | 1950 08 15 | 8.6 | 28.5 | 96.5 | Kanamori, 1977 |
| 11. | Off the west coast of northern Sumatra | 2012 04 11 | 8.6 | 2.311 | 93.063 | PDE |
| 12. | Andreanof Islands, Alaska | 1957 03 09 | 8.6 | 51.56 | -175.39 | Johnson et al., 1994 |
| 13. | Southern Sumatra, Indonesia | 2007 09 12 | 8.5 | -4.438 | 101.367 | PDE |
| 14. | Banda Sea, Indonesia | 1938 02 01 | 8.5 | -5.05 | 131.62 | Okal and Reymond, 2003 |
| 15. | Kamchatka | 1923 02 03 | 8.5 | 54.0 | 161.0 | Kanamori, 1988 |
| 16. | Chile-Argentina Border | 1922 11 11 | 8.5 | -28.55 | -70.50 | Kanamori, 1977 |
| 17. | Kuril Islands | 1963 10 13 | 8.5 | 44.9 | 149.6 | Kanamori, 1977 |
| Updated 2012 April 11 | ||||||
References
Johnson, J.M., Y. Tanioka, L.J. Ruff, K. Sataki, H. Kanamori, and
L.R. Sykes, 1994, The 1957 great Aleutian earthquake, Pure and Appl. Geophys., 142, 3-28.
Kanamori, H., 1977, The energy release of great earthquakes, J. Geophys. Res. 82, 2981-2987.
Kanamori, H., 1988, Importance of historical seismograms for geophysical research, in Lee, W.H.K., Meyers, H., and Shimazaki, K., eds., Historical Seismograms and Earthquakes of the World: San Diego, Academic Press, p. 16-33.
Okal, E.A., and D. Reymond, The mechanism of great Banda Sea earthquake of 01 February 1983, 2003, Applying the method of Preliminary Determination of Focal Mechanism to a historical event, Earth Planet. Sci. Letts., 216, 1-15.
Park, J., T.-R. A. Song, J. Tromp, E. Okal, S. Stein, G. Roult, E. Clevede, G. Laske, H. Kanamori, P. Davis, J. Berger, C. Braitenberg, M. Van Camp, X. Lei, H. Sun, H. Xu, S. Rossat, 2005, Earth's free oscillations excited by the 26 December 2004 Sumatra-Andaman earthquake, Science, 308, 1139-1144.
PDE (Preliminary Determination of Earthquakes) Monthly Listing, U.S. Geological Suvery, Golden, CO.
Revisions
The Andreanof Islands, Alaska earthquake of 1957 03 09, previously listed with a magnitude o
f 9.1,
has had its magnitude reviewed, and it was updated to 8.6.
The Ningxia-Gansu, China earthquake of 1920 12 16, previously listed with a magnitude of 8.6, has had its magnitude reviewed, and it was updated to 7.8.
The Tonga earthquake of 1917 06 26, previously listed with a magnitude of 8.5, has had its magnitude reviewed, and it was updated to 8.4.
