With a magnitude of 9.5, the Chile earthquake of 1960 was the most powerful earthquake of the 20th century. Other more recent earthquakes have, in some cases, caused much more damage and loss of life. The Indian Ocean tsunami of 2004 was caused by a magnitude 9.1 earthquake; it killed at least 225,000 people in a dozen countries. The Haiti earthquake of 2010 had a much smaller magnitude (7.0) but killed about 316,000 people and left 1.5 million people homeless. The Japan earthquake of 2011 had a magnitude of 9.0; it spawned a tsunami that killed an estimated 19,300 people in Japan and knocked out the electrical power to Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, creating the world’s second most serious nuclear emergency. The magnitude-7.8 Kahramanmaraş earthquake of 2023 killed more than 50,700 people. Learn more about major historical earthquakes.
Chile earthquake of 1960 Article