Largest Earthquakes of 20th Century
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The following is a list of the 18 largest earthquakes in terms of magnitude that have occurred in the 20th Century. Official death tolls are shown in parentheses. Last Wednesday’s quake in Soviet Armenia was a magnitude 6.9.
March 2, 1933, Japan, 8.9 (2,990).
Aug. 15, 1950, India, 8.7 (1,530).
Dec. 16, 1920, China, 8.6 (100,000).
Aug. 16, 1906, Chile, 8.6 (20,000).
Mar. 27, 1964, Alaska, 8.5 (114).
Dec. 21, 1946, Japan, 8.4 (2,000).
Jan. 15, 1934, India, 8.4 (10,700).
May 21-30, 1960, Chile, 8.3 (5,000).
Jan. 24, 1939, Chile, 8.3 (28,000).
May 22, 1927, China, 8.3 (200,000).
Sept. 1, 1923, Japan, 8.3 (100,000).
April 18-19, 1906, San Francisco, 8.3 (452).
Nov. 23, 1977, Argentina, 8.2 (100).
Sept. 19, 1985, Mexico, 8.1 (9,500).
Dec. 12, 1979, Colombia and Ecuador, 7.9 (800).
Nov. 24, 1976, eastern Turkey, 7.9 (4,000).
Dec. 26, 1939, Turkey, 7.9 (30,000).
July 28, 1976, China, 7.8 to 8.2 (242,000)
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