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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Source and date
- Data as of
- Published
The data
| 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 |