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The earthquake that struck Chile this morning registered as a magnitude 8.8, a massive temblor by any measure. Only five quakes since 1900 have been recorded equal to or as powerful as the one that struck Chile today.
Not far from where today’s quake struck, the most powerful quake in history occurred – a 9.5 magnitude quake on May 22, 1960. Click here for more information on that event.
Second on the list is the 1964 Alaskan quake. Striking on March 27, 1964 at 5:36pm local time, the temblor was centered near Prince William Sound. 128 lives were loss and more than $311 million in damage was caused.
The earthquake that caused the infamous Indonesian tsunami on December 26, 2004 ranks as the third most powerful. That 9.1 magnitude quake originated off the west coast of Northern Sumatra and created a tsunami that killed more than 150,000 people and left millions homeless in 11 nations.
A magnitude 9.0 quake occurred on November 4, 1952 in Kamchatka, Russia. The tsunami from that event reached Hawaii and caused nearly $1 million of damage in the state.
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Number five on the list centered off the coast of Ecuador on January 31, 1906. That magnitude 8.8 quake generated a tsunami that killed between 500 and 1,500 people. The waves from that event were seen across Central America, Hawaii, San Francisco and Japan.
The U.S. Geological Survey will perform an in depth analysis of today’s earthquake in Chile to determine its final rating. Assuming it remains as a magnitude 8.8, it will tie with the 1906 Ecuador quake as the fifth strongest since 1900.
A complete list of the most powerful quakes since 1900 from the U.S. Geological Survey follows.
| Location | Date UTC | Magnitude | Lat. | Long. | Reference | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | Chile | 1960 05 22 | 9.5 | -38.29 | -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 2009 May 14 | ||||||
Map and table courtesy the U.S. Geological Survey.
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