Feature: Deadliest earthquakes

The massive earthquake that struck off the coast of Japan on March 11, 2011, ranked as the fifth largest in the world since 1900, and the largest to strike Japan in 140 years.

Several tectonic plates meet in and around Japan, causing frequent earthquakes in the country. The deadliest in recent history was on Sept. 1, 1923.

Known as “the Great Kanto Earthquake,” the epicentre was located just outside of the heavily-populated capital Tokyo. The tremor levelled the city and killed 142,800 people. Millions more were left homeless.

A 7.2-magnitude quake in Kobe in 1995 killed 6,400 people.

Many other countries around the world have been rocked by tremors.

The 6.3-magnitude earthquake to hit Christchurch, New Zealand in February killed at least 65 people and caused widespread damage. It was the second major tremor to hit the city in five months.

A 7.1 magnitude tremor hit on Sept 4, 2010. While no one was killed in the quake, there was extensive damage.

In January 2010, a 7.0-magnitude quake struck Haiti. With the epicentre just outside the bustling capital of Port-au-Prince, the death toll was high, around 230,000. It was the country’s most severe earthquake in more than 200 years.

Indonesia

One of the deadliest quakes in recent memory struck off the coast of Sumatra on Dec. 26, 2004. The 9.1-magnitude undersea tremor caused a tsunami that devastated Indonesia and surrounding countries, killing 220,000 people.

Pakistan was hit on Oct. 8 of the following year. More than 75,000 people were killed when a 7.6-magnitude quake hit the Northwest Frontier Province and the Kashmir region. Around 3.5 million people were displaced in the disaster.

China is also very seismically active. In fact, some of the deadliest quakes in recorded history have occurred there.

More than 87,000 people were reported dead or missing, and 370,000 were injured after a 7.8-magnitude tremor rocked China’s southwest province of Sichuan on May 12, 2008.

One of the most destructive earthquakes of the century occurred in the city of Tangshan. The 7.8-magnitude tremor struck in the middle of the night on July 28, 1976, destroying the city and killing at least 250,000 people.

Two other major quakes have rocked the country in the last century: a 1927 earthquake in Nanshan that killed 200,000 people, and a 1920 tremor that rocked the Kansu region, killing 180,000.

China was also the location of the deadliest natural disaster on record, the Shaanxi Quake of 1556. The death toll was around 830,000, far higher than any other natural disaster in recent history.

Records indicate that nearly three-quarters of the population surrounding the epicentre in Shaanxi Province was wiped out, and the damage and death extended for almost 500 kilometres. In some areas, holes almost 20 metres deep opened in the earth.

Although there have been stronger quakes on record (later scientific analysis has revealed the Shaanxi Quake was between 8.0 and 8.3 in magnitude), the density of the population coupled with landslides and poorly-constructed homes led to the incredibly high toll.

A massive magnitude-8.8 earthquake struck near the coast of south-central Chile in Feb. 2010, shaking buildings in the capital Santiago, 320 km away and triggering a tsunami along the coast.

The following is a list of the deadliest earthquakes on record:

Year Location Number of deaths Magnitude

1556 China, Shansi 830,000 n/a

1976 China, Tangshan 270,500 7.5

1138 Syria, Aleppo 230,000 n/a

2004 Off Aceh, Indonesia 227,898*** 9.15

2010 Haiti 212,000 7.0

1927 China, near Xining 200,000 n/a

c.856 Iran, Damghan 200,000 n/a

1920 China, Gansu 200,000 8.6

c.893 Iran, Ardabil 150,000 n/a

1923 Japan, Kanto 143,000* n/a

1948 Turkmenistan 110,000 7.3

1908 Italy, Messina 70,000-100,000 7.2

1290 China, Chihli 100,000 n/a

2008 China, Sichuan 87,587 7.9

1667 Azerbaijan, Shemakha 80,000 n/a

1727 Iran, Tabriz 77,000 n/a

2005 Pakistan, Kashmir 73,276 7.6

1755 Portugal, Lisbon 70,000 n/a

1932 China, Gansu 70,000 7.6

1970 Peru 66,000 7.9

1268 Turkey, Cilicia 60,000 n/a

1693 Italy, Sicily 60,000 n/a

1935 Pakistan, Quetta 30,000-60,000 7.5

1783 Italy, Calabria 50,000 n/a

1990 Iran, Gilan 35,000 7.7

2003 Iran, Bam 31,000 6.6**

2001 India 19,700 7.7

1999 Turkey 17,800 7.4

* Many thousands were killed in the Great Tokyo Fire caused by the earthquake.

** Iran’s official Islamic Republic News Agency put the Bam quake at 6.3 on the Richter Scale.

*** Most killed by the tsunami that hit Indonesia and travelled across the Indian Ocean as far as India and Sri Lanka.

Sources: Reuters and the United States Geological Survey