This list of 20th-century earthquakes is a global list of notable earthquakes that occurred in the

20th century The 20th (twentieth) century began on January 1, 1901 ( MCMI), and ended on December 31, 2000 ( MM). The 20th century was dominated by significant events that defined the modern era: Spanish flu pandemic, World War I and World War II, nuclear ...

. After 1900 most earthquakes have some degree of

instrumental An instrumental is a recording normally without any vocals, although it might include some inarticulate vocals, such as shouted backup vocals in a big band setting. Through semantic widening, a broader sense of the word song may refer to instru ...

records and this means that the locations and magnitudes are more reliable than for earlier events. To prevent this list becoming unmanageable, only those of

magnitude Magnitude may refer to: Mathematics *Euclidean vector, a quantity defined by both its magnitude and its direction *Magnitude (mathematics), the relative size of an object *Norm (mathematics), a term for the size or length of a vector *Order of ...

6 and above are included unless they are notable for some other reason.

List of deadliest earthquakes

List of largest earthquakes by magnitude

* Note: At least 8.5+ magnitude

1901–1910

1911–1920

1921–1930

1931–1940

1941–1950

1951–1960

1961–1970

1971–1980

1981–1990

1991–2000

:Key to magnitudes :M_L = Local magnitude (Richter) :M_S =

Surface wave magnitude The surface wave magnitude (M_s) scale is one of the magnitude scales used in seismology to describe the size of an earthquake. It is based on measurements of Rayleigh surface waves that travel along the uppermost layers of the Earth. This ma ...

:M_w =

Moment magnitude The moment magnitude scale (MMS; denoted explicitly with or Mw, and generally implied with use of a single M for magnitude) is a measure of an earthquake's magnitude ("size" or strength) based on its seismic moment. It was defined in a 1979 pape ...

References

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Earthquakes An earthquake (also known as a quake, tremor or temblor) is the shaking of the surface of the Earth resulting from a sudden release of energy in the Earth's lithosphere that creates seismic waves. Earthquakes can range in intensity, from ...

Seismic history Seismology related lists