5 largest earthquakes ever recorded in the History of Mankind

It is estimated that there are 20000 earthquakes a year worldwide meaning roughly 55 per day. Out of these, 16 major earthquakes have taken place at magnitude 7 or more and the other ones are smaller ones.

It has been seen that most earthquakes take place in the sea bed resulting in more dangers to life as it results in tsunamis that hit the mainland following an undersea earthquake.

The Richter scale helped to standardise earthquake magnitude measurements in the 1930s. However the scale was flawed and was superseded by the moment magnitude scale and the top 5 earthquakes have been measured by this scale.

5) Severo Kurilsk, Russia, (1952)

Located on the Kuril Islands, Russia, Severo Kurilsk is an archipelago 1300 kms northeast of Japan. In 1952, an undersea earthquake almost wiped out  half the population of the island after an 18 metre wave hit the town flattening the area. After the first wave the people returned to their homes only to find themselves swept away by the second waves. To this day, it is the largest earthquake recorded in Russia.

4) Tohoku, Japan (2011)

The Tohoku earthquake and tsunami occurred on 11th March 2011, and is the largest earthquake ever recorded in Japan. Its epicentre was nearly 72 kms off the northeast coast of Honshu (the country’s largest island). The earthquake was very powerful and it was estimated that it shifted on its axis between 10 to 25 cm, while Honshu was moved 2.4 metres east.

Waves were recorded of heights reaching up to 40 metres in some areas of the coastline. It destroyed the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power facility and its supply was cut. Over 22000 people were killed due to the Tsunami.

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3) Sumatra, Indonesia (2004)

Recorded at a huge 9.1 magnitude scale, the earthquake was one of the most destructive earthquakes in the history till now. The huge rupture caused an uplift on the ocean floor of over 20 metres and created a devastating tsunami that reached a huge height of 30 metres.

The tsunami affected 14 countries killing 228000 people, India, Indonesia, SriLanka, and Thailand being the worst hit, suffering the most deaths.

2) Alaska, USA (1964)

Large areas of North America were affected when a 1000 km of fault along the Pacific North American tectonic plates were ruptured all at once. The land shook for almost 5 minutes. The city of Anchorage sustained large damages, being only 121 km from the epicentre. The damage was further aggravated due to the lack of earthquake resistant buildings and infrastructure resulting in sinking of roads, pavements and building collapse.

1) Valdivia, Chile (1960)

The biggest earthquake ever recorded was in the city of Valdivia, Chile on 22 May 1960. It had a magnitude of 9.5 killing 5700 people. The earthquake was so powerful that it lasted for 10 minutes. It also resulted in a volcano as the Cordon Caulle Volcano erupted as a result of the seismic activity. The eruption lasted for 58 days in total resulting in less damage.