Earthquakes

Significant Earthquakes Since 2150 BC

6,697 earthquakes · 8,401,944 deaths counted

Every earthquake in NOAA’s Significant Earthquake Database: those that killed, did serious damage, were very large or caused a tsunami, back to 2150 BC, with the deaths, injuries, damage and houses destroyed.

Map

The deadliest earthquakes on record and every one of magnitude 8 or more. Circles are sized and colored by magnitude; select one for its page.

The record

Earthquakes
6,697
Deaths counted
8,401,944
Before 1900
2,605
Earliest
2150 BC

The deadliest earthquakes

Counting the tsunamis and eruptions that came with them.

Deaths by century

Counted deaths only; many older records give the toll only in words.

By century

What this record is

NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information keep the Significant Earthquake Database: every earthquake since 2150 BC that caused deaths or damage of about a million dollars or more, reached magnitude 7.5 or Modified Mercalli intensity X, or set off a tsunami. It is compiled from the scientific and historical literature, so before instruments the magnitude is an estimate from the damage, and many old records give only the year.

The USGS catalog behind the rest of this section begins in 1900 and records where and how large a quake was, not what it did. This record is the tolls: deaths, injuries, missing, damage and houses destroyed, with and without the tsunami or eruption that came with it.

Where the literature gives no number, NCEI records a description on a scale of 1 to 4, printed here in its words. Damage is in millions of US dollars of the year of the event, not adjusted for inflation.

By country

Sources

Significant earthquakes from NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information, Global Historical Hazard Database, cited as NCEI/WDS, doi:10.7289/V5PN93H7. Public domain. Read 2026-09-24.