Recent Major Earthquakes
For live, up-to-the-minute events, use the tracker — but it helps to know the landmark earthquakes that shaped how we understand and prepare for them. Here are several of the most significant of recent decades, what made each one notable, and the fault setting behind it.
The largest ever recorded
Valdivia, Chile — 1960 — M9.5
The most powerful earthquake ever instrumentally recorded. A vast stretch of the subduction boundary off southern Chile ruptured, generating a Pacific-wide tsunami that reached Hawaii, Japan and the Philippines. It remains the benchmark for the upper limit of earthquake size.
Great Alaska (Prince William Sound) — 1964 — M9.2
The largest recorded in North America. It reshaped the Alaskan coastline, triggered landslides and a deadly tsunami, and became a turning point for understanding subduction and tsunami hazard.
Tsunami-generating megathrust quakes
Sumatra–Andaman, Indian Ocean — 2004 — ~M9.1
One of the deadliest natural disasters in modern history. The rupture lifted the seafloor along a huge length of the Sunda subduction zone, sending a tsunami across the Indian Ocean that struck more than a dozen countries. It led directly to new ocean-wide tsunami warning systems.
Tōhoku, Japan — 2011 — ~M9.0
A megathrust quake off northeast Japan that produced a tsunami over 10 metres high in places, overtopping defences and causing the Fukushima nuclear accident. Despite Japan's world-leading preparedness, it showed how even well-defended coasts are vulnerable to the largest events. Japan's early-warning system gave many people tens of seconds of notice.
Smaller magnitude, devastating impact
Haiti — 2010 — M7.0
A stark reminder that magnitude isn't everything. This shallow strike-slip quake struck close to the densely populated capital, Port-au-Prince, where many buildings were not engineered to resist shaking. The death toll was catastrophic, driven by shallow depth, proximity and building vulnerability rather than sheer size.
Nepal (Gorkha) — 2015 — M7.8
A thrust earthquake along the Himalayan front, where the Indian plate pushes beneath Eurasia. It caused widespread destruction in Kathmandu Valley and triggered deadly avalanches on Everest, highlighting the seismic risk of the entire Himalayan arc.
Türkiye–Syria — 2023 — M7.8 (and M7.5 hours later)
A pair of large strike-slip ruptures on the East Anatolian Fault system within the same day. The two events flattened cities across a wide region and caused enormous loss of life, underscoring how a powerful second large shock can compound the damage of the first.
The common threads
Look at where these struck and you'll see the pattern from the types of earthquakes: the giant M9 events were all shallow subduction megathrusts capable of tsunamis, while the deadliest "smaller" quakes were shallow ruptures close to vulnerable cities. Magnitude sets the energy, but depth, location and how buildings are constructed decide the human toll. Open the live map and you'll see today's quakes clustering along the very same boundaries.
Watch where the world is shaking right now and how it compares.
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