Lists of earthquakes
Wikimedia list of historical events
Earthquakes are caused by movements within the Earth's crust and uppermost mantle. They range from weak events detectable only by seismometers, to sudden and violent events lasting many minutes which have caused some of the biggest disasters in human history. Below, there are earthquakes listed by period, region or country, year, magnitude, cost, fatalities, and number of scientific studies.
Deadliest earthquakes
The following is a summary list of earthquakes with over approximately 100,000 deaths. The 893 Ardabil earthquake is most likely the same as the 893 Dvin earthquake, due to misreading of the Arabic word for Dvin, "Dabil" as "Ardabil".
Deadliest earthquakes by year since 1920
Strongest earthquakes by magnitude
For those which occurred before the development and deployment of seismographs – starting around 1900 – magnitudes are estimated from historical reports of the extent and severity of damage.
Pre-instrumental earthquakes
Strongest earthquakes by magnitude each year since 1907
Strongest earthquakes by magnitude by country/territory
This list is a work in progress. Information is likely to be changed.
The list refers to current country boundaries rather than those at the date of the earthquake.
Please note, multiple countries could have the same earthquake listed, such as the 1906 Ecuador–Colombia earthquake being listed for both Ecuador and Colombia.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Lists of earthquakes” is wikimedia list of historical events. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Lists, earthquakes and Wikimedia, not as a finished interpretation.
Why this record matters
The phrase “wikimedia list of historical events” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.
Chronology, provenance and viewpoint should be read together before a broad social or political interpretation is accepted. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 21, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q214872. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1920, 1900, 1907 and 1906.
Official terminology may obscure informal participation, dissent or communities documented only indirectly. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
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This entry incorporates text from “Lists of earthquakes” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.