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The ground starts to tremble and your walls begin to shake.
In the distance, a siren resounds and panic sets in as your home starts to shutter under
the destructive force of Mother Nature.
While you wait for the quake to subside, pass the time with this rumbling Archive of the
Top 10 Deadliest Earthquakes Throughout History.
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10.
Tabriz, Iran (1780) Estimates of this 1700’s earthquake that
shook the Tabriz region of Iran have reached as high as 200,000 deaths.
The destructive quake nearly leveled all of Tabriz, leaving only 30,000 inhabitants left
in the remains of the city.
Multiple quakes shook Tabriz during the span of the 18th century, but the event on January
8th, 1780, at a magnitude of 7.7, is believed to have been the most devastating of the time
and responsible for lasting damage to the Friday Mosque, the Blue Mosque, and Alishah,
or Arg-e Alishah Mosque.
9.
Hongdong (1303) On September 25th, 1303, the region of Hongdong,
then under the rule of the Mongol Empire, suffered an estimated 200,000 casualties across
the Shanxi Province during a destructive quake.
The earthquake was believed to have reached a magnitude of eight and laid waste to nearby
Zhaozheng and Huo Counties.
Significant damage was dealt to over 100,000 houses and other buildings, including the
Ganying Temple of Quhuo of Huo County, Dwongwu Pavilion of Zhaozheng, and the Guangshang
Temple of Hongdong. 8.
Aleppo (1138) According to Egyptian historian Ibn Taghribirdi,
upwards of 230,000 people were lost during the 1138 earthquake in Aleppo, Syria.
Some sources, however, claim that figure stemmed from a merging of the 1137 quake along the
Jazira plain and the 1139 quake in Transcaucasia.
But judging by the destruction brought on by the October 11th disaster, Taghribirdi’s
estimate could be accurate.
The quake destroyed homes in Aleppo, crushing those that lived within them, and even caused
extensive damage in the nearby city of Harim, where a Crusader citadel collapsed.
The quake was believed to have been felt upwards of 220 miles or 350 kilometers away at Damascus
and was blamed for destroying a Muslim fort at Al-Atarib.
7.
Haiyuan, China (1920) The Gansu province of China was met with nature’s
wrath on December 16th, 1920 when a quake with an estimated magnitude of 7.8 to 8.5
wracked the city of Haiyuan.
From the destructive force of the massive earthquake, a landslide formed, burying the
Suijahe village in Xiji County.
The cities of Longde, Taiyuan, Xi’an, Yinchuan, Lanzhou, and Huining also suffered greatly.
Casualty estimates vary with the United States Geological Survey reporting 200,000 and the
Catalog of Damaging Earthquakes and International Institute of Seismology and Earthquake Engineering
claiming closer to 235,500. 6.
Antioch (526 AD) At a spot where four of Earth’s tectonic
plates converge once sat the ancient city of Antioch which was founded in the late 4th
century BC by Seleucus, one of Alexander the Great’s generals, it later became an epicenter
for early Christianity.
During the month of May in 526 AD, the city, which was believed to have a population of
around 250,000, experienced a fatal blow.
Everything from the large 200-year-old church to the inhabitants of the bustling city perished
in a massive magnitude 7.0 earthquake, effectively wiping Antioch from the map.
5.
Antioch (115 AD) Though the earthquake of 526 AD completely
leveled Antioch, it wasn’t the first time the city experienced the wrath of Mother Nature.
At a magnitude of 7.5, the quake of 115 AD was featured in Cassius Dio’s Roman History
and was described as having destroyed the city of Apamea and led to a tsunami striking
the Lebanese coast.
A record on the number of casualties has been sparse, but an estimate of 260,000 often tossed
around accounts for the range of damage, including that felt within the nearby cities of Apamea,
Beirut, Caesarea, and Yavneh. 4.
Sumatra-Andaman (2004) While parts of the world were recuperating
from their Christmas celebrations in 2004, much of Indonesia was facing an unstoppable
grim reality.
Early in the morning of December 26th, a magnitude 9.1 to 9.3 earthquake struck just off the
western coast of Sumatra, Indonesia, causing tremors in Sri Lanka, India, Maldives, Madagascar,
and Kenya.
Though the quake was widespread, Indonesia felt the blunt of the disaster, racking up
a bulk of the total estimate of 280,000 casualties.
Beyond the quake itself, which was the third-largest to be recorded on a seismograph, a tsunami
with waves as high as 100 feet or 30 meters spawned, adding to the alleged $10 billion
in damage.
3.
Haiti (2010) The destructive force that shook through the
West Indian island of Hispaniola in the country of Haiti stemmed from the movement of the
Caribbean tectonic plates along the Enriquillo-Plantain Garden strike-slip fault system.
The level of damage and the hectic relief efforts that emerged after the January 2010
earthquake made pinpointing an exact death toll difficult, but the Haitian government
produced a number of around 300,000, though many believe that to be greatly inflated.
Shortly after the quake, the University of Michigan produced its own study into the damage
and suggested an estimated 160,000 while the U.S.G.S.
estimated closer to 100,000.
Hundreds of thousands of Haitian natives were displaced and as many as 55,000 remained as
such six years later.
2.
Tangshan, China (1976) The Great Tangshan Earthquake was measured
at a magnitude of 7.5 to 8.2 and, according to the Hebei Revolutionary Committee, was
responsible for the deaths of up to 655,000 people, with an additional 700,000 injuries.
Reports from the Chinese Seismological Service in 1988 estimated that 242,419 lives were
lost, but the Chinese government has ultimately refused to comment on the final tally.
The center of the densely-populated city, which housed approximately 1.6 million people,
was completely leveled during the 16-second quake, which generated along the Tangshan
Fault.
Despite the damage done, the Chinese government ordered the reconstruction of the city.
1.
Shaanxi, China (1556) Estimated deaths from the Shaanxi earthquake
of 1556 have reached as high as 830,000 people, and though the 8.3 magnitude quake was far
from the strongest on record, a mix of its location and poor construction within the
cities contributed to the massive death toll.
The epicenter of the quake was pinpointed at the Wei River Valley in the Shaanxi Province,
near the cities of Huaxian, Weinan, and Huayin.
Huaxian was destroyed and half of its population killed.
Facing a similar scenario were Weinan, Huayin, and cities as far away as 300 miles or roughly
482 kilometers from the epicenter, which faced deadly landslides.