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Top Earthquake States

Earthquakes, Magnitude 3.5 and Greater, 1974 - 2003

Top Earthquake States

1. Alaska 1
2. California
3. Hawaii 2
4. Nevada
5. Washington
6. Idaho
7. Wyoming
8. Montana
9. Utah
10. Oregon

  • Remember that earthquakes centered in one State may produce damage in another.

  • This list does not reflect the extent to which earthquake activity might be concentrated in a few small areas of the State or spread throughout the State.

  • This list does not show how earthquakes are distributed with respect to the population of the State.

  • This list does not account for how earthquake waves are attenuated as they travel away from the earthquake epicenter. This attenuation affects the area over which an earthquake will cause damage or be felt. Attenuation is different in different parts of the United States.

  • Some important earthquake source regions are distributed among several States. For example, the New Madrid Seismic Zone source region is "shared" between southeastern Missouri, southern Illinois, western Kentucky, western Tennessee, and northeastern Arkansas. If the New Madrid Seismic Zone activity were concentrated in one State, that State would be ranked number 11 on the list with 40 earthquakes.

  • The distribution of earthquakes varies with time. Selecting earthquakes from a different 30-year interval would likely produce some changes in the ranking of the States.

1Alaska: The number of earthquakes is under reported, even though Alaska already accounts for more than 50 percent of all US earthquakes! Events in the magnitude range of 3.5 to 4.0 in the Aleutian Islands are not recorded on enough seismograph stations to be located.
2Hawaii: The earthquake count was obtained from the USGS Hawaiian Volcano Observatory (HVO). Hawaii and Nevada are essentially tied in the rates of earthquakes of magnitude 5.0 and greater.

The state ranking is based on data from an earthquake search from the USGS PDE catalog (Hawaii from HVO), with a date range of 1974 to 2003, and a magnitude range of 3.5 and greater. The following table shows the results of the search. See the maps that display the data. In the case of a tie, States are listed in alphabetical order.

The National Seismic Hazard Mapping Project prepares maps that give a representation of the seismic hazard across the United States.

  State Number of
Earthquakes
1974-2003		 Percent
of Total
1. Alaska 12053 57.2 %
2. California 4895 23.2 %
3. Hawaii 1533 7.3 %
4. Nevada 778 3.7 %
5. Washington 424 2.0 %
6. Idaho 404 1.9 %
7. Wyoming 217 1.0 %
8. Montana 186 0.9 %
9. Utah 139 0.7 %
10. Oregon 73 0.3 %
 
11. New Mexico 38 0.2 %
12. Arkansas 34 0.2 %
13. Arizona 32 0.2 %
14. Colorado 24 0.1 %
15. Tennessee 22 0.1 %
16. Missouri 21  
17. Texas 20  
18. Illinois 17  
19. Oklahoma 17  
20. Maine 16  
 
21. New York 16  
22. Alabama 15  
23. Kentucky 15  
24. South Carolina 10  
25. South Dakota 10  
26. Virginia 10  
27. Nebraska 8  
28. Ohio 8  
29. Georgia 7  
30. Indiana 6  
31. New Hampshire 6  
32. Pennsylvania 6  
33. Kansas 4  
34. North Carolina 3  
35. Massachusetts 2  
36. Michigan 2  
37. Minnesota 2  
38. Mississippi 2  
39. New Jersey 2  
40. Louisiana 1  
41. Rhode Island 1  
42. West Virginia 1  
 
43. Connecticut 0  
44. Delaware 0  
45. Florida 0  
46. Iowa 0  
47. Maryland 0  
48. North Dakota 0  
49. Vermont 0  
50. Wisconsin 0  
 
Total 21080