U.S. ranking · USGS ComCat
U.S. States with the Strongest Earthquakes
U.S. states ranked by the highest-magnitude earthquake catalogued in their territory.
- Alaska
- #1
- M8.2
- Max magnitude
- 39
- ranked states
The verdict
Alaska leads with M8.2, ahead of Northern Mariana Islands (M7.7) and California (M7.2) across 39 ranked U.S. states & territories.
- #2 Northern Mariana Islands
- M7.7
- #3 California
- M7.2
- M5.4
- average across the list
- #39 Florida
- M4.0 (the list cutoff)
Magnitude is logarithmic, each whole step up is ~32× more energy released.
Full ranking
Max magnitude for all 39 ranked U.S. states & territories. 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.
| # | State / territory | Max magnitude |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Alaska | M8.2 |
| 2 | Northern Mariana Islands | M7.7 |
| 3 | California | M7.2 |
| 4 | Hawaii | M6.9 |
| 5 | Guam | M6.8 |
| 6 | Idaho | M6.5 |
| 7 | Nevada | M6.5 |
| 8 | Puerto Rico | M6.4 |
| 9 | Oregon | M6.3 |
| 10 | U.S. Virgin Islands | M6.1 |
| 11 | Georgia | M6.0 |
| 12 | Montana | M5.8 |
| 13 | Virginia | M5.8 |
| 14 | American Samoa | M5.8 |
| 15 | Oklahoma | M5.8 |
| 16 | Utah | M5.7 |
| 17 | New Mexico | M5.4 |
| 18 | Texas | M5.4 |
| 19 | Colorado | M5.3 |
| 20 | Arizona | M5.3 |
| 21 | Louisiana | M5.3 |
| 22 | Illinois | M5.2 |
| 23 | North Carolina | M5.1 |
| 24 | Kansas | M4.9 |
| 25 | Wyoming | M4.8 |
| 26 | New Jersey | M4.8 |
| 27 | Arkansas | M4.7 |
| 28 | Washington | M4.7 |
| 29 | Maine | M4.7 |
| 30 | Maryland | M4.6 |
| 31 | Tennessee | M4.4 |
| 32 | Kentucky | M4.2 |
| 33 | Michigan | M4.2 |
| 34 | South Carolina | M4.1 |
| 35 | Delaware | M4.1 |
| 36 | Nebraska | M4.1 |
| 37 | Ohio | M4.0 |
| 38 | Missouri | M4.0 |
| 39 | Florida | M4.0 |
Source: USGS Comprehensive Earthquake Catalog (ComCat).
What this state ranking means
The 4.2-magnitude gap between Alaska (M8.2) and #39-ranked Florida (M4.0) represents roughly 1,995,262x more energy released - magnitude is logarithmic.
- See Alaska's full earthquake history, magnitude and depth profile, and yearly trend. Open Alaska's page
- Magnitude alone does not capture frequency - see which states 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 state, 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 state sits on an active subduction zone capable of producing very large ruptures.
A low rank here does not mean a state 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
Has a magnitude-9 earthquake hit the continental U.S.? ▼
The ~M9.0 1700 Cascadia earthquake struck the Pacific Northwest before seismographs existed; evidence comes from Japanese tsunami records and coastal geology. These megathrusts recur every 200–500 years on the Cascadia Subduction Zone.
Are these maximum magnitudes recent only? ▼
The significant-event series covers M6+ back to 1900, with best instrumental coverage after 1970. Pre-instrumental events are estimated from accounts and geology, so exact magnitudes carry uncertainty.
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.