earthquake map - last 20 years

Earthquake Map: The 20 Biggest Quakes of the Last 50 Years

As the climate crisis intensifies, some scientists believe that the frequency of natural disasters, like earthquakes, are increasing. It’s a scary phenomena, underscored by headlines of devastating wildfires in California, an earthquake in Tibet, and category five hurricanes. But despite what seems like an increasingly urgent crisis, natural disasters are not a new phenomena.

To help us visualize the impact of earthquakes around the world, we built an earthquake map. The map highlights the 20 deadliest earthquakes of the last 50 years, the majority of which occurred around the circum-Pacific seismic belt, or “Ring of Fire.” According to the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), this region is where over 80 percent of Earth’s largest earthquakes take place.

Interactive Earthquake Map

This map was created using ZeeMaps.

On the map, the radius of each circle represents the estimated rupture of the earthquake in kilometers. You can see some stand out earthquakes with a huge impact include the 2004 Indian Ocean Earthquake and Tsunami. The deadliest earthquake in modern history, the 2004 quake had a devastating 280,000 casualties. The 2011 Tōhoku Earthquake and Tsunami off the coast of Honshu, Japan, also had a huge radius, but far fewer casualties (under 20,000) due to location.

The color of the circle on the map represents the number of casualties caused by the earthquake. The red circles denote earthquakes with over 150,000 casualties. Orange circles show those with between 50,000 and 149,999 deaths, while yellow circles represent events with between 10,000 and 49,999 casualties, and light yellow circles are for quakes with under 10,000 deaths.

You can interact with the map by clicking on each circle to learn more about the earthquake, including the date of event, magnitude, location, number of casualties, and a brief description.

20 Deadliest Earthquakes Since 1974

EarthquakeMagnitudeEst. Rupture (km)LocationCasualties
2004 Indian Ocean Earthquake and Tsunami9.31,000Sumatra, Indonesia280,000
1976 Tangshan Earthquake7.6126Hebei, China242,769
2010 Haiti Earthquake7.044Port-au-Prince, Haiti160,000
2008 Sichuan Earthquake7.9200Sichuan, China87,587
2005 Kashmir Earthquake7.6141Muzaffarabad, Pakistan86,000
2023 Turkey–Syria Earthquake7.8177Pazarcık, Kahramanmaraş Province, Turkey53,000
1990 Manjil-Rudbar Earthquake7.4112Rudbar, Iran50,000
2003 Bam Earthquake6.628Bam, Iran26,000
1988 Spitak Earthquake6.835Spitak, Armenia25,000
1978 Tabas Earthquake7.4112Tabas, Iran25,000
2001 Bhuj Earthquake7.6158Bhachau, Gujarat, India20,000
2011 Tōhoku Earthquake and Tsunami9.1891Honshu, Japan19,759
1999 Izmit Earthquake7.6141Izmit, Turkey17,000
1985 Mexico Earthquake8.0251Michoacán, Mexico10,000
1993 Latur Earthquake6.217Killari, India9,748
2015 Nepal Earthquake7.8177Barpak, Nepal8,964
1995 Great Hanshin Earthquake6.939Kobe, Japan6,434
2006 Yogyakarta Earthquake6.422Bantul, Indonesia5,749
2018 Palu Earthquake and Tsunami7.5126Palu, Indonesia4,340
2021 Haiti Earthquake7.256Petit-Trou-de-Nippes, Haiti2,248

Earthquake Map

earthquake map - last 20 years

Create Your Own Map with ZeeMaps

To get started uploading a spreadsheet with radius circle markers of your own, you can do one of two things:

  1. Select the ‘Additions’ > ‘Add (Upload) Multiple Markers’ menu item on your map, or
  2. Click the ‘Map My Spreadsheet’ button.
  3. Upload your file. Along with the file, there is an option to specify what kind of markers you would like to add. Select ‘Circles.’
  4. The next dialog will give you the option to select your radius column, choose the default radius, and select whether the radius values are in miles or kilometers. Even if you are not using the default radius, and have specified radius values for each of your spreadsheet rows, make sure you check the appropriate box for miles or kilometers.
  5. Circle markers can have different colors and additional information in them that will be visible once you click on the circle.

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