Key facts
- Recent back-to-back earthquakes have occurred in Venezuela, causing casualties.
- The report lists deadliest earthquakes in Latin America over the past century.
- Notable events include a magnitude 8.8 earthquake in Chile in 1960, the largest ever recorded.
- A 1970 earthquake in Peru killed over 66,000 people.
- A 1976 earthquake in Guatemala resulted in over 22,700 deaths.
Rare back-to-back deadly earthquakes struck Venezuela on Wednesday, resulting in hundreds of casualties. In response, this report compiles a list of some of the most devastating earthquakes to have occurred in Latin America over the past century.
Among the most significant events, a magnitude 8.8 earthquake in Chile on May 22, 1960, known as the Valdivia or Great Chilean earthquake, remains the largest ever recorded, causing over 1,655 fatalities and leaving 2 million people homeless. Another catastrophic event was the magnitude 7.9 earthquake in northern Peru on May 31, 1970, which claimed more than 66,000 lives.
More recently, Mexico experienced devastating seismic activity with an 8.1 magnitude earthquake on September 19, 1985, that killed approximately 12,000 people, with the true toll unknown. Within the last decade, a magnitude 7.8 earthquake struck Ecuador on April 16, 2016, flattening towns and killing over 650 people. In September 2017, Mexico was again hit by back-to-back quakes, an 8.1 and a 7.1 magnitude, causing nearly 500 deaths.
Other notable deadly earthquakes include a magnitude 7.5 quake in western Guatemala on February 4, 1976, which killed more than 22,700 people, and a magnitude 6.2 earthquake in Nicaragua on December 23, 1972, that resulted in over 6,000 deaths. El Salvador suffered over 1,200 fatalities from earthquakes and landslides in January and February 2001. Western Colombia was devastated by a magnitude 6.0 earthquake on January 25, 1999, killing about 1,170 people. Chile also experienced a magnitude 8.3 earthquake on January 24, 1939, which killed around 28,000 people. An 8.8 magnitude earthquake off Ecuador in 1906, known as the Ecuador-Colombia earthquake, generated a tsunami that killed about 1,500 people.