The+list+of+Equakes

 The 7.0 magnitude earthquake that struck the nation of Haiti on January 12, 2010 has begotten widespread devastation and unfathomable ruin, killing hundreds of thousands of people and leaving an estimated 1 million with nowhere to live. It may shock you to know that at 7.0, that quake doesn't make the list of the 10 largest of the past century; this is especially unsettling when one considers that each whole number increase in magnitude means __ a release of about 31 times more energy __ from the earth.

10. __ Southern Sumatra, Indonesia __, September 12, 2007: 8.5

Number killed: at least 25

Number injured: 161

Cost of damages: Unknown

__ Only a day after the dust settled __, another 7.9 magnitude earthquake followed, collapsing buildings and killing five people.

9. __ Andreanof Islands Alaska __, March 9, 1957: 8.6

Number killed: 0

Number displaced: Unknown

Cost of damages: $5 million

The __ only reported casualties were sheep __, but it did produce massive waves all along the coastline of North, Central, and South America.

8. __ Assam, Tibet __, August 15, 1950: 8.6

Number killed: 780

Number displaced: Unknown

Cost of damages: more than $25 million

Forty to 50 percent of all wildlife in the area nearest the quake died; the quake produced an violent aftershock a few days later that __ many journalists mistakenly believed __ to not only be greater than the original (it wasn't), but also the largest of all time (nor was it that).

7. __ Northern Sumatra, Indonesia __, March 28, 2005: 8.7

Number killed: at least 1,000

Number displaced: Unknown

Cost of damages: Unknown

Two months earlier __ ////National Geographic//// __ predicted that Sumatra would experience more earthquakes (following the larger one on December 26, 2004). The island sits on a part of the ocean where large chunks of Earth’s crust often collide; Sumatra's fault also spans the entire length of the island, which is a bit of a double whammy.

6. __ Rat Islands, Alaska __, February 4, 1965: 8.7

Number killed: Unknown

Number displaced: Unknown

Cost of damages: $10,000

Positioned on the Aleutian arc on the boundary between the Pacific and North American crustal plates, the Rat Islands occupy one of the world’s most active seismic zones; with more than 100 7.0 or larger magnitude earthquakes __ having occurred there __ in the past 100 years.

5. __ Off the coast of Ecuador __, January 31, 1906: 8.8

Number killed: 500 to 1,500

Number displaced: Unknown

Cost of damages: Unknown

__ An especially violent year __ for earthquakes, 1906 also saw massive tremors in San Francisco and in Valparaiso, Chile.

4. __ Kamchatka, Russia __, November 5, 1952: 9.0

Number killed: Unknown

Number displaced: Unknown

Cost of damages: $800,000 to $1 million

This earthquake __ unleashed a tsunami __ that was "powerful enough to throw a cement barge in the Honolulu Harbor into a freighter,” but it wasn't widely reported in the West because it happened during the Cold War.

3. __ The west coast of Northern Sumatra __, Indonesia, December 26, 2004: 9.1

Number killed: 157,577

Number displaced: 1,075,350

Cost of damages: Unknown

The tsunami that followed caused more casualties than any in recorded history.

2. __ Prince William Sound, Alaska __. March 28, 1964: 9.2

Number killed: 128

Number displaced: Unknown

Cost of damages: $311 million

Because it occurred on Good Friday, it earned the somewhat dubious (if logical) title of the "Good Friday Earthquake."

1. __ Valdivia, Chile __, May 22, 1960: 9.5

Number killed: 1,655

Number displaced: 2 million

Cost of damages: $550 million

The world's largest earthquake produced landslides so massive that they changed the courses of rivers and lakes. It begot a tsunami that battered the northern coastline of California, some 9,000 miles away; waves also hit __ Hawaii, the Philippines, and Japan __ where hundreds died.