The Earthquakes That Shook the World in Recent History
The days when the earth trembled beneath our feet

On Christmas day, around 9:02 p.m., a 4.0-magnitude earthquake shook things up here in Portugal.
The earthquake epicenter was about 50 kilometers from Setúbal and 20. Fortunately, this quake didn’t cause any harm to people or property, which is always good news.
The quake was felt most intensely in the Évora district, scoring a solid IV/V on the modified Mercalli scale.
I have several friends in that area, and my phone was buzzing with messages going back and forth.
Mainland Portugal is located on the Eurasian plate, but we haven’t had any major shakes since the devastating Great Lisbon Quake that killed between 60,000 and 100,000 people on the morning of Saturday, November 1, the Feast of All Saints, in 1755.
The Portuguese are still haunted by how tragedy struck on a religious festive date.
So when everything started shaking on Christmas Day, everyone took to social media to share their experiences of feeling the ground move on Monday night.
Interestingly, earlier in the day, at 4:30 p.m., a smaller quake with a magnitude of 0.3 on the Richter scale had been recorded in the area.
So we had a jittery Christmas this year, and that inspired me to write this piece about the most devastating earthquakes in recorded history.
From Chile to Japan, these massive quakes left destruction and heartache in their wake.
Northern Sumatra, Indonesia, 2012: magnitude 8.6
11 April 2012 at 15.38 local time—a tragedy strikes off the west coast of the Indonesian island of Sumatra.
The earthquake struck at a depth of about 23 kilometers, and the epicenter was located about 434 kilometers from the city of Banda Aceh, the capital of Acech province on Indonesia’s coast.
The tsunami sirens blast throughout the Indian Ocean. Waves of up to 6 meters are about to hit Aceh, particularly the island of Simeulue.
The shockwaves reach Thailand, Singapore, and India. Several aftershocks follow with one of them reaching a magnitude of 8.2 off the coast of Banda Aceh.
Indonesia lies on the so-called Ring of Fire, an arc of faults surrounding the Pacific Basin that is prone to frequent earthquakes and volcanic eruptions.
Hence, there’s more to come about Indonesian earthquakes.
Assam-Tibet (1950)—8.6
On August 15, 1950, the Tibetan mountains shook. What would be known as the Assam quake had its epicenter in Rima.
In the Nyingchi, Qamdo-Zhamo (Rima, Zayu) area, more than 700 people died and many buildings collapsed.
The seism was even felt in Lhasa, the capital of Tibet, and in Sichuan and Yunnan, China. The Sibsagar-Sadiya area of Assam, India, also suffered extensive damage.
The dire consequences of the earthquake were compounded by the ensuing floods.
Dozens of villages were destroyed in the Aborfor Hills, mainly by landslides. Large landslides blocked the Subansiri River, which broke, creating a seven-meter-high wave that flooded several villages and killed hundreds of people.
Unfortunately, the Tibet region is prone to natural disasters, with annual floods occurring not throughout the region but in specific areas and frequent earthquakes, although not of such a high magnitude.

Rat Islands, Alaska, 1965: magnitude 8.7
February 4, 1965, at 19:01 (local time)—With an epicenter below the sea, this quake caused a 10-meter-high tsunami that struck Shemya Island.
The Rat Islands are a series of volcanic islands that make up the Aleutian Islands, which are formed when the Pacific Plate subducts beneath the North American Plate.
This is a high-risk area for seismic activity as it stands on a plate boundary, often known as the Alaska-Aleutian megathrust.
Offshore Maule, Chile, 2010: magnitude 8.8
February 27, 2010, at 03:34 (local time).
The earth shakes as everyone sleeps.
The seismic epicenter is located on the southern coast of Maule. Its origin was a displacement of the Nazca plate under the South American plate.
This was the second-largest earthquake to occur in Chile in the last two centuries.
The seism causes a tidal wave that strikes central and southern Chile. Killing 521 people, while 56 went missing.
The tsunami reaches the Maule region, and the death toll rises.
In the O’Higgins region, 130,000 people were left homeless, while in Santiago, there were 38 deaths.

Off the coast of Ecuador, 1906: magnitude 8.8
On January 31, 1906, there was a seismic quake below sea level.
This quake caused a tsunami that brought destruction to several cities in Colombia.
The tidal waves soon hit Rioverde in the north of the province of Esmeraldas.
All the houses near the Santiago and Mataje rivers were destroyed, and about 1,000 to 1,500 people died.
In the Esmeraldas area, the river overflowed its banks, flooding low-lying areas of the town.
The effects of this seismic catastrophe would have been much more severe if the tsunami had occurred at high tide.
Kamchatka, Russia, 1952: magnitude 9.0
An earthquake with an oceanic epicenter occurred east of the Kamchatka Peninsula (Northeast Siberia, Russia) on November 4, 1952.
It generated a tidal wave that was recorded by all tide stations around the Pacific basin.
The seven-meter-high tidal wave reached Kamchatka and the Kuril Islands in less than thirty minutes.
The tsunami traveled across the Pacific at a speed of 404 mph and still had the strength to cause floods in Hawaii and on the coast of Chile.

Tohoku, Japan, 2011: magnitude 9.0
The 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami occurred on March 11, 2011.
This was the most powerful seismic activity recorded in Japan’s history.
It produced a tsunami that caused enormous damage to several locations, including the coastal areas of the Tōhoku region by the Pacific Ocean.
For instance, the city of Rikuzentakata was devastated by the tidal wave that rose above 10 meters (about 33 feet).
The world stopped to watch the quake’s ominous consequences when the tsunami struck the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant causing one of the most serious nuclear incidents in history.

Sumatra, Indonesia, 2004: magnitude 9.1
In March 2004, a gargantuan 9.1 earthquake shook the coast of Sumatra. It caused a tsunami that killed more than 200,000 people in 14 countries.
The northeastern tip of Sumatra Island in Indonesia was the area most severely impacted.
Other coastal districts in neighboring nations also experienced property destruction and countless fatalities.
Millions of people were left homeless as most of the buildings were completely destroyed by the sheer force of the waves.
The Sumatra earthquake sits among the deadliest in history.
in recorded history.
Prince William Sound, Alaska, 1964: magnitude 9.2
On March 27, 1964, Alaska was jolted by the second-largest earthquake in recorded history.
Around 17:36, the earth trembled in Anchorage.
The ground shook for around four minutes, and multiple landslides occurred.
Cities were ravaged, and streets were utterly wrecked by the force of nature, as you can see in the picture below.
The earthquake caused less than 100 fatalities; however, the worst was yet to come.
Immediately after the quake, the sea off the coast near the epicenter began to recede dramatically, only to return with a force never seen before.
A tsunami engulfed coastal communities with waves over 30 meters high.

Chile, 1960: magnitude 9.5
The highest-magnitude earthquake ever recorded occurred in Chile on May 22, 1960.
This seismic event of unimaginable proportions unleashed a massive tsunami, with waves up to 25 meters high, that propagated for thousands of kilometers in the Pacific Ocean.
The epicenter of the “Great Chile Earthquake” was along the coast of Isla Mocha in southern Chile, near the city of Valdivia.
We will never know the exact number of victims of the Valdivia quake, but the most accurate estimates indicate more than 2,000 dead, with millions left injured or displaced.

As we wrap up 2023, it’s saddening to look back and note how we had 19 major earthquakes. More than 64,100 people lost their lives—the highest since 2010.
Who doesn’t remember those headlines about Turkey and Syria?
A double earthquake struck in February. Over 59,000 lives are gone in seconds. That first big shock, a colossal Mw 7.8, was devastating.
Then, Morocco trembled in September—the biggest quake in centuries in the country. 3000 dead.
October wasn’t any kinder; Afghanistan got hit with four quakes, leaving 1,400 hearts heavy.
November brought a moderate shake to Nepal, with 153 lives lost.
December wrapped it up with a tremor in China, taking 149 souls—the deadliest since 2014.
Yep, it’s a heavy story, but in every quake, there are some tough lessons to be learned.
As I wave goodbye to 2023, I keep reminding myself:
Chaos isn’t a pit, it’s a ladder.
Each cataclism is a time to learn from mistakes, be ready, and know we will always fail against nature, but we can fail better and respond quicker. Because even when the ground shakes, you have the strength to stand tall.
References:
- To know more about Portugal’s earthquakes, we keep track of any seismic activity, as you can see here, and reports are filed here.
- More information about the Great Lisbon Quake can be found here.
Author’s note:
It’s important to note that these values are subject to revision as more data becomes available and technology improves. Additionally, there may have been larger earthquakes in history that went unrecorded.