Most Destructive Known Earthquakes on Record in the World
(50,000 deaths or more)
(Listed in order of greatest number of deaths)
Date Location Deaths Mag Comments
January 23, 1556 China, Shansi 830,000
October 11, 1737 India, Calcutta** 300,000
July 27, 1976 China, Tangshan 255,000* 8.0
August 9, 1138 Syria, Aleppo 230,000
May 22, 1927 China, near Xining 200,000 8.3 Large fractures.
December 22, 856+ Iran, Damghan 200,000
December 16, 1920 China, Gansu 200,000 8.6 Major fractures,
landslides.
March 23, 893+ Iran, Ardabil 150,000
September 1, 1923 Japan, Kwanto 143,000 8.3 Great Tokyo fire.
December 28, 1908 Italy, Messina 70,000 7.5 Deaths from
to 100,000 earthquake and
(estimated) tsunami.
September, 1290 China, Chihli 100,000
November, 1667 Caucasia, Shemakha 80,000
November 18, 1727 Iran, Tabriz 77,000
November 1, 1755 Portugal, Lisbon 70,000 8.7 Great tsunami.
December 25, 1932 China, Gansu 70,000 7.6
May 31, 1970 Peru 66,000 7.8 $530,000 damage,
great rock slide,
floods.
1268 Asia Minor, Silicia 60,000
January 11, 1693 Italy, Sicily 60,000
May 30, 1935 Pakistan, Quetta 30,000 7.5 Quetta almost
to 60,000 completely destroyed.
February 4, 1783 Italy, Calabria 50,000
June 20, 1990 Iran 50,000 7.7 Landslides.
* Official casualty figure--estimated death toll as high as 655,000.
+ Note that these dates are prior to 1000 AD. No digit is missing.
** Later research has shown that this was a typhoon, not an earthquake.
(Source: The 1737 Calcutta Earthquake and Cyclone Evaluated by
Roger Bilham, BSSA, Vol. 84, No. 5, October 1994)
Data compiled from several sources.