Top 10 powerful Earthquake since 1900 from www.gkduniya.com

1. 10. 15th August, 1950-Assam-Tibet
The 8.6 magnitude earthquake had caused extensive damage to the Upper Assam, Arunachal
Pradesh and the Tibet region of China. It was followed by numerous aftershocks for a week.
More than 2000 people killed and the drainage of the region was greatly affected. There were
huge landslides in the mountains and these dammed tributaries of the Brahmaputra River.
9. 28th March, 2005-Northern Sumatra, Indonesia
The 8.6 magnitude earthquake hits the Nias and Simeulue islands in the west coast of northern
Sumatra, Indonesia. Around 1200 people killed by it. The epicenter located 90 km south of
Sinabang with 30 Km depth.
8. 4th february, 1965-Rat Islands, Alaska
It had a magnitude of 8.7 and generated a tsunami reported to be about 10.7 meters high on
Shemya Island. The flooding from the tsunami caused $10,000 worth of damage on Amchitka
Island.
7. 31st January, 1906-Ecuador
The 1906 Ecuador-Colombia earthquake was generated near the coastal city Esmeraldas in
northwestern Ecuador with magnitude of 8.8. It triggered a tsunami that caused 500 to 1500 lives
causalities on the cost of Colombia.
6. 27th February, 2010-Maule, Chile

2. The 2010 Chile earthquake occurred off the Maule coast of central Chile having a magnitude of
8.8 for four minutes. At least 525 people killed and around 4,00,000 houses destructed or
damaged by the earthquake and subsequent tsunami generated in the Valparaiso-Concepcion-
Temuco area. The quake was centered 200 miles south-west of Santiago at a depth of 22 miles
and it reported 11 aftershocks.
5. 4th November, 1952-Kamchatka, Russia
The Kamchatka Tsunami was generated by a magnitude 9.0 earthquake on November 4, 1952 in
East Russia. It generated a destructive Pacific-wide tsunami which mostly affected Hawaiian
islands. But no deaths were recorded due to the earthquake.
4. 11th March, 2011-Honshu, Japan
The Earthquake hit on the Pacific coast of Honshu in the northeastern Japan with a magnitude of
9. Residents near the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant and Fukushima Daini Nuclear
Power Plant were evacuated as radioactive water discovered leaking from both plants after
earthquake. More than 15 thousand people killed and around 3 thousand people missing due to
the earthquake.
3. 26th December, 2004-West Coast of Northern Sumatra
The magnitude 9.1 earthquake struck 30km below the surface around 160km off the western
coast of northern Sumatra for 10 minutes. The tsunami that followed killed 227,898 people in 14
countries in South Asia and East Africa. The countries which are affected mostly by the tsunami
are Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India, Thailand, Maldives and Somalia. Some of the waves were up to
30 meters high.
2. 28th March, 1964-Alaska, USA
The earthquake was of 4 minutes duration with magnitude of 9.2 . It occurred in Prince William
Sound region of Alaska. 131 people killed due to the earthquake of which 106 died from the
subsequent tsunami in Alaska. The Tsunami waves generated were noted in over 20 countries.
1. 22nd May, 1960-Chile
Also known as Great Chilean earthquake, it was a 9.5 magnitude earthquake that lasted for 10
minutes. The earthquakes hits in the evening of 22nd May approximately 160 km off the cost of
Chile. Around 1600 people killed, 3000 injured and 20,00,000 people homeless. The earthquake
generated Tsunamis that traveled across the Pacific Ocean at a speed of over 200 miles per hour.
Two days later the Cordón-Caulle volcano in the Chilean Lake District erupted after nearly 40
years of inactivity.