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 Chile Earthquake (M8.8) and Russia Earthquake (M8.8) across 50 ranked countries.
- Japan
- #1 - M9.1
- #2 Chile Earthquake
- M8.8
- M7.8
- average across the list
- 50
- countries ranked
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.
| # | Country | Max magnitude |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Japan | M9.1 |
| 2 | Chile Earthquake | M8.8 |
| 3 | Russia Earthquake | M8.8 |
| 4 | Indonesia | M8.6 |
| 5 | Chile | M8.3 |
| 6 | Mexico Earthquake | M8.2 |
| 7 | Alaska Earthquake | M8.2 |
| 8 | New Zealand Earthquake | M8.1 |
| 9 | Peru | M8.0 |
| 10 | United States | M7.9 |
| 11 | Papua New Guinea | M7.9 |
| 12 | China | M7.9 |
| 13 | Fiji | M7.9 |
| 14 | Japan region | M7.8 |
| 15 | Russia | M7.8 |
| 16 | New Zealand | M7.8 |
| 17 | Vanuatu | M7.8 |
| 18 | Solomon Islands | M7.8 |
| 19 | Canada | M7.8 |
| 20 | Philippines | M7.8 |
| 21 | Nepal | M7.8 |
| 22 | Ecuador | M7.8 |
| 23 | Kahramanmaras earthquake sequence | M7.8 |
| 24 | Pakistan | M7.7 |
| 25 | Iran | M7.7 |
| 26 | Russia region | M7.7 |
| 27 | Jamaica | M7.7 |
| 28 | Burma (Myanmar) Earthquake | M7.7 |
| 29 | Mexico | M7.6 |
| 30 | Tonga | M7.6 |
| 31 | Costa Rica | M7.6 |
| 32 | Cayman Islands | M7.6 |
| 33 | Japan Earthquake | M7.6 |
| 34 | Afghanistan | M7.5 |
| 35 | India | M7.5 |
| 36 | India region | M7.5 |
| 37 | Venezuela | M7.5 |
| 38 | New Caledonia | M7.5 |
| 39 | Honduras | M7.5 |
| 40 | Taiwan | M7.4 |
| 41 | Guatemala | M7.4 |
| 42 | New Zealand region | M7.4 |
| 43 | Martinique | M7.4 |
| 44 | Colombia | M7.3 |
| 45 | Timor Leste | M7.3 |
| 46 | El Salvador | M7.3 |
| 47 | Iraq | M7.3 |
| 48 | Tajikistan | M7.2 |
| 49 | Haiti | M7.2 |
| 50 | Turkey | M7.1 |
Source: USGS Comprehensive Earthquake Catalog (ComCat).
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.