What are the biggest earthquakes since 1900?

The strongest earthquake ever recorded struck Chile in 1960 at magnitude 9.5. Alaska's 1964 quake (9.2) and the 2004 Sumatra and 2011 Japan quakes (9.1 each) come next; 17 earthquakes have reached magnitude 8.5 or more since 1900, most around the Pacific. Magnitude is a logarithmic scale, so a 9.5 releases about 30 times the energy of an 8.5, far more than the bars suggest.

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Bars are sorted from highest to lowest and start at zero; each one's value is at its end.

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Key facts

Measure: Magnitude. Written from the data below.

  • 1960: Great Chilean (Valdivia) has the highest figure, 9.5, followed by 1964: Prince William Sound, Alaska (9.2) and 2004: Sumatra - Andaman Islands (9.1).
  • 1963: Kuril Islands, 1938: Banda Sea, and 1922: near Vallenar, Chile share the lowest figure, 8.5.

Source and date

Source
U.S. Geological Survey, ANSS Comprehensive Earthquake Catalog (ComCat)
License
Public domain (U.S. government work); source U.S. Geological Survey
Data as of
Published

Citation

Chartly. “What are the biggest earthquakes since 1900?” Chart. Data: U.S. Geological Survey, ANSS Comprehensive Earthquake Catalog (ComCat), https://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/search/ (data as of December 31, 2025). https://chart.ly/charts/biggest-earthquakes-since-1900 (accessed October 16, 2026).

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The data

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The file has the numbers in this table, with the source, license and date. Please credit the source and Chartly.

Year and place Magnitude
1960: Great Chilean (Valdivia) 9.5
1964: Prince William Sound, Alaska 9.2
2004: Sumatra - Andaman Islands 9.1
2011: Great Tohoku, Japan 9.1
1952: near Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, Russia 9
2025: Kamchatka Peninsula, Russia 8.8
1906: Ecuador-Colombia 8.8
2010: Maule, Chile 8.8
1965: Western Aleutian Islands (Hawadax/Rat Islands) 8.7
1946: Unimak Island, Alaska 8.6
1950: Assam-Tibet 8.6
2012: Wharton Basin 8.6
2005: near Singkil, Indonesia 8.6
1957: Atka, Alaska 8.6
1922: near Vallenar, Chile 8.5
1938: Banda Sea 8.5
1963: Kuril Islands 8.5

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