Historical earthquakes is a list of significant
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 ...
known to have occurred prior to the beginning of the 20th century. As the events listed here occurred before routine
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 ...
recordings, they rely mainly on the analysis of written sources. There is often significant uncertainty in location and magnitude and sometimes date for each earthquake. The number of fatalities is also often highly uncertain, particularly for the older events.
Pre-11th century
11th–18th centuries
19th century
Source for all events with 'USGS' labelled as the source
United States Geological Survey
The United States Geological Survey (USGS), formerly simply known as the Geological Survey, is a scientific agency of the United States government. The scientists of the USGS study the landscape of the United States, its natural resources, ...
(USGS
''Note: Magnitudes are generally estimations from intensity data. When no magnitude was available, the Mercalli intensity scale, maximum intensity, written as a Roman numeral
Roman numerals are a numeral system that originated in ancient Rome and remained the usual way of writing numbers throughout Europe well into the Late Middle Ages. Numbers are written with combinations of letters from the Latin alphabet, eac ...
from I to XII, is given.''
See also
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:Articles on pre-1900 earthquakes
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List of 20th-century earthquakes
This list of 20th-century earthquakes is a global list of notable earthquakes that occurred in the 20th century. After 1900 most earthquakes have some degree of seismometer, instrumental records and this means that the locations and magnitudes ...
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List of 21st-century earthquakes
The following is a summary of significant earthquakes during the 21st century.
In terms of fatalities, the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake was the most destructive event with around 227,898 fatalities, followed by the 2010 Haiti earthquake with 16 ...
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List of tsunamis
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Lists of earthquakes
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List of megathrust earthquakes
This is a list of megathrust earthquakes that have occurred. Megathrust earthquakes are large seismic events that take place along convergent plate boundaries, particularly at subduction zones. Examples of subduction zones include the Sumatra ...
References
External links
Southern California Earthquake Center (SCEC)Earthquakes CanadaHistorical earthquakes in EuropeIRIS Seismic Monitor
Recent earthquakes around the world
SeismoArchives
Seismogram Archives of Significant Earthquakes of the World
USGS list of current earthquakesUSGS list of earthquakes magnitude 6.0 and greater sorted by magnitudeGlobal Significant Earthquake Database, 2150 BC to present
– National Geophysical Data Center
Database for the damage of world earthquake, ancient period (3000 BC) to year of 2006
– Building Research Institute (Japan)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Historical Earthquakes
*Historical earthquakes
Seismic history