Global ranking · USGS ComCat
Countries with the Strongest Earthquakes
Countries ranked by the highest-magnitude earthquake catalogued in their territory.
- Japan
- #1
- M9.1
- Max magnitude
- 50
- ranked countries
The verdict
Japan leads with M9.1, ahead of Russia (M8.8) and Chile (M8.8) across 50 ranked countries.
- #2 Russia
- M8.8
- #3 Chile
- M8.8
- M7.6
- average across the list
- #50 Panama
- M6.7 (the list cutoff)
Magnitude is logarithmic, each whole step up is ~32× more energy released.
Full ranking
Max magnitude for all 50 ranked countries. Select any entry for its full seismic profile.
Bar length shows each row's value as a share of the #1 entry; hover or tap a bar for its exact share and rank.
| # | Country | Max magnitude |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Japan | M9.1 |
| 2 | Russia | M8.8 |
| 3 | Chile | M8.8 |
| 4 | Indonesia | M8.6 |
| 5 | Mexico | M8.2 |
| 6 | United States | M8.2 |
| 7 | New Zealand | M8.1 |
| 8 | Peru | M8.0 |
| 9 | Papua New Guinea | M7.9 |
| 10 | China | M7.9 |
| 11 | Fiji | M7.9 |
| 12 | Vanuatu | M7.8 |
| 13 | Solomon Islands | M7.8 |
| 14 | Turkey | M7.8 |
| 15 | Canada | M7.8 |
| 16 | Philippines | M7.8 |
| 17 | Nepal | M7.8 |
| 18 | Ecuador | M7.8 |
| 19 | Myanmar | M7.7 |
| 20 | Pakistan | M7.7 |
| 21 | Iran | M7.7 |
| 22 | Jamaica | M7.7 |
| 23 | Tonga | M7.6 |
| 24 | Costa Rica | M7.6 |
| 25 | Cayman Islands | M7.6 |
| 26 | Afghanistan | M7.5 |
| 27 | India | M7.5 |
| 28 | Venezuela | M7.5 |
| 29 | New Caledonia | M7.5 |
| 30 | Honduras | M7.5 |
| 31 | Taiwan | M7.4 |
| 32 | Guatemala | M7.4 |
| 33 | Martinique | M7.4 |
| 34 | Colombia | M7.3 |
| 35 | Timor Leste | M7.3 |
| 36 | El Salvador | M7.3 |
| 37 | Iraq | M7.3 |
| 38 | Tajikistan | M7.2 |
| 39 | Haiti | M7.2 |
| 40 | Malaysia | M7.1 |
| 41 | Argentina | M7.0 |
| 42 | Greece | M7.0 |
| 43 | Zimbabwe | M7.0 |
| 44 | Democratic Republic of the Congo | M6.8 |
| 45 | Bolivia | M6.8 |
| 46 | Morocco | M6.8 |
| 47 | Svalbard and Jan Mayen | M6.8 |
| 48 | Cuba | M6.8 |
| 49 | Brazil | M6.8 |
| 50 | Panama | M6.7 |
Source: USGS Comprehensive Earthquake Catalog (ComCat).
What this country ranking means
The 2.4-magnitude gap between Japan (M9.1) and #50-ranked Panama (M6.7) represents roughly 3,981x more energy released - magnitude is logarithmic.
- See Japan's full earthquake history, magnitude and depth profile, and yearly trend. Open Japan's page
- Magnitude alone does not capture frequency - see which countries experience the MOST earthquakes, not just the strongest. See the complementary ranking
Figures reflect the USGS ComCat catalog (M4+ since 2005, M6+ significant events since 1900) and depend partly on regional monitoring density - not a real-time hazard assessment.
How to read this ranking
This ranks the single STRONGEST catalogued earthquake ever recorded in each country, not an average. Unlike small tremors, a megathrust-scale event is detected by global monitoring networks even from sparsely-instrumented regions, so this list is far less affected by monitoring density than count-based rankings. It mostly reflects deep tectonic setting: whether a country sits on an active subduction zone capable of producing very large ruptures.
A low rank here does not mean a country is safe from a future large event, only that the recorded catalog (2005-present for M4+, back to 1900 for M6+) has not yet captured one. Some faults rupture on cycles far longer than the catalog window.
Frequently asked questions
What is the strongest earthquake ever recorded? ▼
The M9.5 1960 Valdivia earthquake in Chile, the largest ever recorded by modern instruments. It ruptured roughly 1,000 km of fault and generated a Pacific-wide tsunami.
Can earthquakes exceed magnitude 10? ▼
It is theoretically possible but extraordinarily unlikely, an M10 would require a fault rupture longer than any known fault (~10,000 km). The scale is logarithmic: M10 releases about 32× the energy of M9.5.
Other rankings
About this data
These rankings are computed directly from the USGS Comprehensive Earthquake Catalog (ComCat), the public-domain record maintained by the USGS Earthquake Hazards Program. Count-based leaderboards use the worldwide catalog of magnitude-4.0-and-above events from 2005 onward, the period over which the global seismograph network reliably detects and locates earthquakes everywhere, while magnitude leaderboards use the significant-event series of magnitude-6.0-and-above earthquakes stretching back to 1900. Magnitudes use the moment-magnitude scale (Mw), the modern standard that supersedes the older Richter scale; because the scale is logarithmic, each whole step up represents roughly thirty-two times more energy released. Remember that raw counts partly measure monitoring density, not only underlying seismicity, and that one historic outlier can anchor a high maximum magnitude, read each leaderboard alongside population exposure and building stock before drawing conclusions about real-world risk.
Source: USGS ComCat, verify with USGS → · See our methodology for the full pipeline.
According to the US Geological Survey Earthquake Hazards Program, PlainQuake's figures are rendered directly from 315,341 recorded M4+ earthquakes and 14,428 significant M6+ events (USGS ComCat, 2005-present) -- no figure is typed in by an editor. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error. Data current as of 2026-07-19.