Venezuela was rocked by two deadly earthquakes in quick succession on Wednesday, resulting in hundreds of casualties. The unusual back-to-back disaster highlights a long and tragic history of powerful earthquakes across Latin America. Here is a look at some of the deadliest seismic events to strike South and Central America over the past century.
September 2017 — Mexico: Within roughly one week, Mexico was hit by both an 8.1 and a 7.1 magnitude earthquake. The twin disasters devastated southern and central parts of the country, including Mexico City, and together claimed nearly 500 lives.
April 16, 2016 — Ecuador: A magnitude 7.8 earthquake tore through coastal provinces, leveling entire towns and killing more than 650 people.
February 27, 2010 — Chile: Central Chile was shaken by a powerful magnitude 8.8 earthquake that rattled the nation’s capital for roughly a minute and a half and set off a tsunami. The disaster left 523 people dead.
August 15, 2007 — Peru: A magnitude 8.0 earthquake struck close to Peru’s central coast, taking the lives of more than 500 people.
January and February 2001 — El Salvador: A magnitude 7.7 earthquake struck off El Salvador’s coast on January 13, 2001, followed by a 6.6 magnitude quake approximately one month later. The earthquakes and the landslides they triggered together killed 1,200 or more people.
January 25, 1999 — Western Colombia: A magnitude 6.0 earthquake caused widespread destruction in the city of Armenia, killing around 1,170 people.
April 22, 1991 — Costa Rica: A magnitude 7.4 earthquake claimed more than 80 lives across Costa Rica and Panama. Roughly 30,000 people were cut off from access to food, water, and medical care for several days.
September 19, 1985 — Central Mexico: A magnitude 8.1 earthquake killed approximately 12,000 people, though the full death toll has never been precisely determined.
February 4, 1976 — Western Guatemala: A magnitude 7.5 earthquake killed more than 22,700 people.
December 23, 1972 — Nicaragua: A magnitude 6.2 earthquake killed more than 6,000 people, with certain estimates placing the death toll as high as 9,000.
May 31, 1970 — Northern Peru: A magnitude 7.9 earthquake killed more than 66,000 people in one of the region’s worst-ever disasters.
May 22, 1960 — Chile: A magnitude 9.5 earthquake — known as both the Valdivia earthquake and the Great Chilean earthquake — holds the record as the largest earthquake ever recorded anywhere on Earth. The disaster killed more than 1,655 people, many of them in a resulting tsunami, and left 2 million people without homes.
August 5, 1949 — Ecuador: A magnitude 6.8 earthquake killed approximately 5,050 people.
January 24, 1939 — Chile: A magnitude 8.3 earthquake struck the Chillan area, killing around 28,000 people, with some estimates putting the number closer to 30,000.
January 31, 1906 — Ecuador: A magnitude 8.8 earthquake struck near Esmeraldas and is known as the Ecuador-Colombia earthquake. It unleashed a powerful tsunami that killed roughly 1,500 people and sent waves as far north as San Francisco.
