Images

2025 USGS National Seismic Hazard Model for Puerto Rico and U.S. Virgin Islands Chance of Damaging Shaking Map; chance of slight-or-greater damaging earthquake shaking in 100 years (equivalent to Modified Mercalli Intensity VI).

10 Largest Earthquakes Ever Recorded (Updated 2025)

#10. MAGNITUDE 8.6 (1950). Arunachal Pradesh, India - Referred to as the Assam-Tibet earthquake, this quake produced intense shaking, triggered sandblows, ground cracks, and large landslides across the region. All told, 780 people died.

Nicholas Pelyk, Jason Patton, Rob Anthony, and Skyler Grulke slide a part into the tube while assembling a seismometer at the Physical Sciences Laboratory in Stoughton, Wisconsin on Aug. 7, 2025. (Photo by Taylor Wolfram / UW–Madison)

Jason Patton, Rob Anthony (USGS), and Skyler Grulke assemble a seismometer at the Physical Sciences Laboratory in Stoughton, Wisconsin on Aug. 7, 2025. (Photo by Taylor Wolfram / UW–Madison)

USGS Rob Anthony sets up equipment in a freezer to test a Seismometer Interface Module at the Physical Sciences Laboratory in Stoughton, Wisconsin on Aug. 7, 2025. (Photo by Taylor Wolfram / UW–Madison)

USGS Rob Anthony puts in the Seismometer Interface Module while assembling a seismometer at the Physical Sciences Laboratory in Stoughton, Wisconsin on Aug. 7, 2025. (Photo by Taylor Wolfram / UW–Madison)

This is an icon used for the Earthquake Notification Service product as illustrated on the Earthquake Hazards Program products page.

This is an icon used for the Earthquake Scenarios product as illustrated on the Earthquake Hazards Program products page.

This is an icon used for the Moment Tensors product as illustrated on the Earthquake Hazards Program products page.

This is an icon used for the ShakeAlert product as illustrated on the Earthquake Hazards Program products page.

This is an icon used for the ShakeCast product as illustrated on the Earthquake Hazards Program products page.

This is an icon used for the Did You Feel It? product as illustrated on the Earthquake Hazards Program products page.

This is an icon used for the Finite Fault product as illustrated on the Earthquake Hazards Program products page.

This is an icon used for the ShakeMap product as illustrated on the Earthquake Hazards Program products page.

This is an icon used for the Aftershock Forecast product as illustrated on the Earthquake Hazards Program products page.

This is an icon used for the Ground Failure product as illustrated on the Earthquake Hazards Program products page.

This is an icon used for the PAGER product as illustrated on the Earthquake Hazards Program products page.

Map of the United States and its territories showing 2024 International Building Code Seismic Design Categories and Risk Categories.

Map of the United States and its territories showing the distribution of average annualized earthquake losses by region (modified from Jaiswal and others, 2023). Economic losses from earthquakes in these nine regions are estimated to average \$14.7 billion dollars per year.

Seismic hazard model for Hawaii from 2021 showing peak ground acceleration where warmer colors are higher levels (Petersen and others, 2022).

A cross section through the area of Anchorage, AK showing earthquakes at depths along with subduction model linework from Slab2 and inputs from the 2007 NSHM. The image shows the seismic catalog (for the 2023 NSHM seismic hazard model for Alaska; Powers and others, 2024) for the crust (yellow), interface (orange), and intraslab (red).