Most Destructive Earthquakes, 5-12
It's not just always the quakes themselves that do the damage but also the resulting tremors and tsunamis that occur, as you'll see in the destructive earthquakes below.5. Alaska: March 28, 1964
The most powerful tremor in U.S. history -- lasting three minutes and measuring 9.2 on the Richter scale -- struck Prince William Sound in Alaska. Only 15 people died in the quake itself, but the resulting tsunami, which reached more than 200 feet high at Valdez inlet, killed 110 more people and caused $311 million in property damage. The city of Anchorage was hit particularly hard, with 30 downtown blocks suffering heavy damage.
6. Peru: May 31, 1970
A 7.9 magnitude quake just off the western coast of South America caused more than $500 million in damage and killed 66,000 Peruvians, with building collapses responsible for most of the deaths. Scientists say the South American tectonic plate continues to drift westward into the Pacific Ocean crustal slab, so additional serious earthquakes along the continent's coast are likely.
7. China: July 27, 1976
This quake, a 7.5 on the Richter scale, was one of many major tremors over the years along the "Ring of Fire," a belt of heavy seismic activity around the Pacific Ocean. It struck Tangshan, then a city of one million people near China's northeastern coast. Official Chinese figures indicate around 250,000 deaths, but other estimates are as high as 655,000.
8. Central California: October 18, 1989
The Loma Prieta quake -- which struck the San Francisco area as game three of the 1989 World Series was just about to begin in Candlestick Park -- killed 63 people and caused property damage of approximately $6 billion. At 6.9 on the Richter scale, it was the strongest shake in the Bay Area since 1906. Al Michaels, an ABC announcer in the ballpark for the game, was later nominated for an Emmy for his live earthquake reports.
9. Southern California: January 17, 1994
The 6.7 magnitude Northridge tremor left 60 people dead and caused an estimated $44 billion in damage. The rumbling damaged more than 40,000 buildings in four of California's most populated and expensive counties: Los Angeles, Orange, Ventura, and San Bernardino. The earthquake, which was felt as far away as Utah and northern Mexico, luckily struck at 4:30 a.m., when most people were not yet populating the region's crowded freeways, office buildings, and parking structures, many of which collapsed.
10. Japan: January 17, 1995
This massive quake in Kobe, Japan, measured 6.9 on the Richter scale. It killed more than 5,000 people and caused in excess of $100 billion in property loss, making it the most costly earthquake in history. The staggering expense was largely due to the collapse of, or damage to, more than 200,000 buildings in the high cost-of-living area. Coincidentally, the Kobe quake -- or the Great Hanshin Earthquake, as it is most commonly known in Japan -- occurred on the first anniversary of the Northridge tremor.
11. Indonesia: December 26, 2004
This massive earthquake just off the west coast of the island of Sumatra, and the tsunami that followed, killed at least 230,000 (and perhaps as many as 290,000) people in 12 countries -- including about 168,000 in Indonesia alone. It registered 9.1 on the Richter scale and will long be remembered for the devastating waves that brought fatalities to countries all around the Indian Ocean. Scientists say the tremor was so strong that it wobbled Earth's rotation on its axis by almost an inch.
12. Pakistan: October 8, 2005
This earthquake, which registered 7.6 on the Richter scale and was felt across much of Pakistan and northern India, killed more than 80,000 people, injured almost 70,000, and destroyed thousands of structures. Landslides, rockfalls, and crumbled buildings left an estimated four million people homeless and cut off access to some areas for several days.
CONTRIBUTING WRITERS:
Helen Davies, Marjorie Dorfman, Mary Fons, Deborah Hawkins, Martin Hintz, Linnea Lundgren, David Priess, Julia Clark Robinson, Paul Seaburn, Heidi Stevens, and Steve Theunissen
