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Lisbon Earthquake (Portugal)
The magnitude of the earthquake was 8.5-9.5. The estimated death toll was 30,000- 50,000 deaths. Shocks from the earthquake were felt throughout Europe as far as Finland and in North Africa. Eighty-five percent of Lisbon's buildings were destroyed, including famous palaces, and libraries, as well as most examples of Portugal's distinctive 16th-century Manueline architecture. -
Krakatoa Eruption (Java/Sumatra)
The magnitude of the earthquake was 6. The death toll was 36,417. In the years before the 1883 eruption, seismic activity around the Krakatoa volcano was intense, with earthquakes felt as far away as Australia. The combination of pyroclastic flows, volcanic ash, and tsunamis associated with the Krakatoa eruptions had disastrous regional consequences. In the aftermath of the eruption, it was found that Krakatoa had almost entirely disappeared, except for the southern third. -
Aleutian Earthquake (Alaska)
The magnitude of the earthquake was 8.1-8.6. The estimated death toll was 65-173 deaths. Wave heights reached an estimated 115 feet in Alaska and averaged 30 feet in Hawaii, where the tsunami struck without warning nearly 5 hours after the earthquake. As a result of this disaster, the United States established the Seismic Sea Wave Warning System to provide coastal communities with warnings of approaching tsunamis. -
Great Chilean Earthquake (Chile)
The magnitude of the earthquake was 9.4–9.6. The estimated death toll was 1,000–6,000 deaths. Many Chilean cities sustained significant damage, including Puerto Montt, where noticeable subsidence occurred, and Valdivia, where nearly half of the buildings were rendered uninhabitable. Two days later the Cordón Caulle volcano in Chile’s Lake District erupted after nearly 40 years of inactivity, an event thought by some seismologists to be linked to the quake. -
Good Friday Earthquake (Alaska)
The magnitude of the earthquake was 9.2. The death toll was 131. Alaska had never experienced a major disaster in a highly-populated area before and had very limited resources for dealing with the effects of such an event. The earthquake lasted approximately 4.5 minutes and is the most powerful recorded earthquake in U.S. history. -
Hokkaido Earthquake (Japan)
The magnitude of the earthquake was 7.7. The death toll was 230. The tsunami reached Okushiri between 2 and 7 minutes after the earthquake. The destructive power of this tsunami led to an overhaul of the sea defenses on Okushiri involving the construction of tsunami sluices on a river and strengthened embankments. -
Papua New Guinea Quake (Papua New Guinea)
The magnitude of the earthquake was 7.0-7.5. The estimated death toll was 2,183-2,700 deaths. The earthquake consisted of a mainshock and several aftershocks that were felt in several towns in the area around the epicenter. A few minutes after the earthquake, residents reported hearing a loud clap as the tsunami approached the shoreline. The tsunami raised awareness among scientists of the potential for small earthquakes to trigger large tsunamis if they cause undersea landslides. -
Sumatra Earthquake (Indonesia)
The magnitude of the earthquake was 9.1-9.3. The death toll 227,998. The earthquake was the third-largest ever recorded and had the longest duration of faulting ever observed, between eight and ten minutes. Numerous aftershocks were reported off the Andaman Islands, the Nicobar Islands, and the region of the original epicenter in the hours and days that followed. -
Samoa Earthquake (Samoan Islands)
The magnitude of the earthquake was 9.1. The death toll 189. The devastation extended beyond human casualties with houses destroyed, cars swept out to sea and some villages being virtually annihilated causing over $200 million dollars in damages. The water system was also damaged in the earthquake, and the supply of fresh water to eastern parts of American Samoa has been disrupted due to broken water lines. -
Chile Earthquake (Chile)
The magnitude of the earthquake was 8.8. The death toll 525. An aftershock of 6.2 was recorded 20 minutes after the initial quake. Two more aftershocks of magnitudes 5.4 and 5.6 followed within an hour of the initial quake. Seismologists estimate that the earthquake was so powerful that it may have shortened the length of the day by 1.26 microseconds and moved the Earth's figure axis by 2.7 milliarcseconds. -
Tohoku Earthquake (Japan)
The magnitude of the earthquake was 9.0-9.1. The death toll 15,899. It was the most powerful earthquake ever recorded in Japan, and the fourth most powerful earthquake in the world since modern record-keeping began in 1900. The tsunami caused nuclear accidents, primarily the level 7 meltdowns at three reactors in the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant complex. The tsunami broke icebergs off the Sulzberger Ice Shelf in Antarctica, 13,000 km away. -
Sulawesi Earthquake (Indonesia)
The magnitude of the earthquake was 7.5. The death toll 4,340. The earthquake caused major soil liquefaction in areas in and around Palu and the liquefaction was considered to be the largest in the world and was deemed as rare. The mainshock was followed by a series of aftershocks, with 14 of M≥5.0 in the first 24 hours and since then, a total of 150 aftershocks have struck the region.
