Largest Earthquakes in the World Since 1900
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| Location | Date UTC | Magnitude | Lat. | Long. | Reference | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | Chile | 1960 05 22 | 9.5 | -38.24 | -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. | Kamchatka | 1952 11 04 | 9.0 | 52.76 | 160.06 | Kanamori, 1977 |
| 5. | Off the Coast of Ecuador | 1906 01 31 | 8.8 | 1.0 | -81.5 | Kanamori, 1977 |
| 6. | Rat Islands, Alaska | 1965 02 04 | 8.7 | 51.21 | 178.50 | Kanamori, 1977 |
| 7. | Northern Sumatra, Indonesia | 2005 03 28 | 8.6 | 2.08 | 97.01 | PDE |
| 8. | Assam - Tibet | 1950 08 15 | 8.6 | 28.5 | 96.5 | Kanamori, 1977 |
| 9. | Andreanof Islands, Alaska | 1957 03 09 | 8.6 | 51.56 | -175.39 | Johnson et al., 1994 |
| 10. | Southern Sumatra, Indonesia | 2007 09 12 | 8.5 | -4.438 | 101.367 | PDE |
| 11. | Banda Sea, Indonesia | 1938 02 01 | 8.5 | -5.05 | 131.62 | Okal and Reymond, 2003 |
| 12. | Kamchatka | 1923 02 03 | 8.5 | 54.0 | 161.0 | Kanamori, 1988 |
| 13. | Chile-Argentina Border | 1922 11 11 | 8.5 | -28.55 | -70.50 | Kanamori, 1977 |
| 14. | Kuril Islands | 1963 10 13 | 8.5 | 44.9 | 149.6 | Kanamori, 1977 |
| Updated 2008 May 14 | ||||||
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.
