In some cities almost all buildings collapsed, or were buried by landslides. It's also hypothesised that the ancient city of Šahr-e Qumis was so badly damaged that it was abandoned after the earthquake.ĭamage occurred across 7 provinces and regions. There was no tsunami warning system in place.Įstimated that extent of the damage area was 220 miles long. Victims across 14 countries in the regions with Indonesia being the hardest-hit, followed by Sri Lanka, India and Thailand. Much less is documented on the specific details of this event.Įarthquake in Indian Ocean off the coast of Sumatra resulted in a series of large tsunamis ( ranging 15 to 30 metres in height). Tangshan therefore large comprised of unreinforced brick buildings which resulted in a large death toll. Estimated that up to 85% of buildings collapsed. Reported that the earthquake risk had been greatly underestimated meaning almost all buildings and structures were designed and built without seismic considerations. However, severe damage was also caused by fires in the aftermath combined with strong wind. The earthquake caused severe damage to many buildings. ![]() Severe damage to the area of the Byzantine Empire. A local tsunami was triggered causing damage to the coast of Lebanon. Apamea was also destroyed and Beirut suffered severe damage. In the latter case, this event would fall to 7th place in the above rankings.Īntioch (ancient ruins which lie near the modern city Antakya) and surrounding areas suffered severe damage. Some sources suggest a lower figure of 220,000. Here we present the adopted figure by the NGDC of the NOAA (for consistency with other earthquakes) this is the figure reported by the Haitian government. Such catastrophic losses are attributed to loess cave settlements, which collapsed as a result.ĭeath toll is still disputed. In some counties it's estimated that up to 60% of the population died. More than 97 counties in China were affected. ![]() The deadly nature earthquakes has been a persistent threat throughout our history. Both old and very recent feature near the top the list. Making the top three was the earthquake in Antakya (Turkey) in the year 115. But equally, some of the most fatal occurred in the very distant past. Two very recent earthquakes - the Sumatra earthquake and tsunami of 2004, and 2010 Port-au-Prince earthquake - feature amongst the most deadly in human history. It’s reported that 316,000 people died as a result. This is more than twice that of the second most fatal: the recent Port-au-Prince earthquake in Haiti in 2010. It’s estimated to have killed 830,000 people. The most deadly earthquake in history was in Shaanxi, China in 1556. This ranking is also summarized in table form. 2Ĭlicking on the visualization will open it in higher-resolution. 1 This ranking is based on mortality estimates from the NOAA’s National Geophysical Data Center (NGDC). ![]() What have been the most deadly earthquakes in human history? In the visualization we have mapped the top 10 rankings of known earthquakes which resulted in the largest number of deaths. In fact, both events (the Sumatra earthquake and tsunami of 2004, and Port-au-Prince earthquake in 2010) are in the deadliest earthquake rankings below. Earthquake deaths accounted for 93 percent and 69 percent of such deaths, respectively. Since 2000, the two peak years in annual death tolls (reaching 100s of thousands) were 20. Whilst historically floods, droughts and epidemics dominated disaster deaths, a high annual death toll now often results from a major earthquake and possibly a tsunami caused by them. The number of people dying in natural disasters is lower today than it was in the past, the world has become more resilient.Įarthquakes, however, can still claim a large number of lives.
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