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Jan 23, 1556
Shaanxi, China
Magnitude: 7.9 Death Toll: 830,000
520 mile-wide area was destroyed, and in some counties 60% of the population was killed. Crevices up to 66 feet deep opened in some places. People affected up 310 miles from epicenter. -
New Zealand
Magnitude: 7.5 Death Toll: N/A
Shaking continued for two minutes in Wellington and caused massive widespread damage. Earthquake resistant rebuilding lessened the amount of damage and casualties during the Wairarapa earthquake (8.3) that would hit the same area in 1855. -
Off the coast of Ecuator
Magnitude: 8.8 Number killed: 500 to 1,500
An especially violent year for earthquakes, 1906 also saw massive tremors in San Francisco and in Valparaiso, Chile. -
Assam, Tibet
Magnitude: 8.6 Number killed: 780
Forty to 50 percent of all wildlife in the area nearest the quake died; the quake produced an violent aftershock a few days later that many journalists mistakenly believed to not only be greater than the original (it wasn't), but also the largest of all time (nor was it that). -
Chile
Magnitude 9.5
Left 4,485 people dead and injured and 2 million homeless after it struck southern Chile in 1960. The port of Puerto Saavedra was destroyed in the ensuing tsunami, which caused $550m worth of damage in Chile and killed a further 170 people as five-metre waves hit the coasts of Japan and the Philippines. -
Alaska
Magnitude 9.2
This great earthquake and ensuing tsunami took 128 lives (tsunami 113, earthquake 15), and caused about $311 million in property loss. Earthquake effects were heavy in many towns. -
Manalia, Philippines
Manila, Philippines' capital and many provinces of Luzon were shook by a 7.7-magnitude earthquake, killing 1,597 people. -
Japan
A magnitude 7.2 quake, the country's worst in half a century, rocked Kobe, killing 6,430 people. -
Afghanistan
A magnitude 6.9 quake kills up to 4,000 people in northern Takhar province. -
Quindio, Colombia
The coffee region of Quindio in Colombia was shaken by a 6.2-magnitude earthquake killing 1,100 people. -
India
An earthquake of magnitude 7.7 strikes the western state of Gujarat killing at least 19,700 people and causing damage in neighbouring Pakistan. The quake affected 15.9 million people in 7,904 villages. -
Argelia
Some 2,273 people died, 10,243 more were injured and more than 1,000 went missing in Argelia in an earthquake of 5.8 magnitude -
Iran
A magnitude 6.8 earthquake strikes the historic city of Bam, 1,000 km (600 miles) southeast of Tehran. Some 30,948 people were killed in the quake. -
Asia
The number of dead and missing in an Asian earthquake and tsunami reaches almost 230,000. The wave crashed into Sri Lanka and India, drowning thousands and swamping tourist isles in Thailand and the Maldives. The quake measured 9.15 in magnitude. -
Peru
An earthquake measuring 8 magnitude shook Peru, killing 513 people and injuring 1,090 more -
Italy
A 6.3 magnitude quake struck the city of L'Aquila, in the mountainous Abruzzo region, east of Rome, killing at least 292 people. -
Sumatra, Indonesia
Magnitude 7.6 earthquake hits the city of Padang and surrounding areas, killing more than 1,100 people. -
Haiti
A 7.0 magnitude quake devastates Haiti's capital, Port-au-Prince, and kills around 316,000 people. The United Nations estimates that 80,000 buildings in Port-au-Prince and surrounding areas collapsed after the quake, leaving 10 million cubic metres of rubble. -
Turkey
A 6.0-magnitude earthquake struck eastern Turkey, centred on the village of Basyurt in Elazig province, about 550km (340 miles) east of Ankara, the country's capital. -
Japan
A 9.0 magnitude earthquake and tsunami strikes Japan's northeast leaving it in ruins. About 15,690 are killed, 4,740 are missing and 5,710 are injured.
