Earthquakes guide
The Biggest Earthquakes in History: The 10 Largest Ever Recorded
Every one of the ten largest earthquakes ever measured struck where one tectonic plate dives beneath another. Here they are, biggest first, and what they have in common.
Updated 4 November 2026
The ten largest since 1900
Magnitudes are the moment magnitudes published by the US Geological Survey. Earthquakes before about 1950 are less precisely measured, so their numbers carry more uncertainty.
| # | Magnitude | Where | Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 9.5 | Valdivia, Chile | 22 May 1960 |
| 2 | 9.2 | Prince William Sound, Alaska | 28 March 1964 |
| 3 | 9.1 | Off Sumatra, Indonesia (Indian Ocean) | 26 December 2004 |
| 4 | 9.1 | Tōhoku, off the east coast of Japan | 11 March 2011 |
| 5 | 9.0 | Kamchatka, Russia | 4 November 1952 |
| 6 | 8.8 | Off Kamchatka, Russia | 29 July 2025 |
| 7 | 8.8 | Maule, Chile | 27 February 2010 |
| 8 | 8.8 | Off Ecuador and Colombia | 31 January 1906 |
| 9 | 8.7 | Rat Islands, Alaska | 4 February 1965 |
| 10 | 8.6 | Assam, India, and Tibet | 15 August 1950 |
Several other earthquakes also reached magnitude 8.6, including off northern Sumatra in 2005 and 2012 and in Alaska's Andreanof Islands in 1957. Dates are in UTC, so some fall a day later in local time: the 2025 Kamchatka earthquake struck on the morning of 30 July there, and Alaska's 1964 earthquake on the evening of 27 March.
Why they all happen at subduction zones
Nine of the ten struck on subduction zones, where an ocean plate slides beneath another plate. The two plates lock together over a huge area, sometimes more than 1,000 km long and 200 km wide, and strain builds for centuries. When it lets go, the whole area slips at once. The bigger the area that slips, the bigger the earthquake, which is why only these long faults can produce magnitude 9s.
The exception is the 1950 Assam–Tibet earthquake, which happened where India pushes into Asia, the collision that raises the Himalayas.
The tsunamis they caused
Because subduction earthquakes lift or drop the sea floor, most of the largest ones caused tsunamis. The 1960 Chile tsunami crossed the Pacific and killed people in Hawaii and Japan the next day. The 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami was the deadliest on record, killing around 230,000 people in 14 countries. In 2011, waves in Japan ran up to around 40 metres above sea level in places. In 2025 tsunami warnings went out around the Pacific, and coastal towns in Kamchatka were flooded.
Read more in Tsunami warning signs and what to do.
How often a magnitude 9 happens
Five earthquakes of magnitude 9 or more have been recorded since 1900: about one every 25 years on average, though they come in clusters (three between 1952 and 1964, then none until 2004). Magnitude 8 earthquakes happen about once a year. See Earthquake magnitude explained for what each step means.
Biggest is not deadliest
The death toll depends far more on where an earthquake strikes, how deep it is and how buildings are built than on its magnitude. The 2010 Haiti earthquake was a magnitude 7.0 but killed many times more people than the much larger 2010 Chile earthquake, because it struck close to a crowded city with weak buildings.
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