Earthquakes are caused by movements within the Earth's crust and uppermost mantle. They range from events too weak to be detectable except by sensitive instrumentation, to sudden and violent events lasting many minutes which have caused some of the greatest disasters in human history. Below, earthquakes are listed by period, region or country, year, magnitude, cost, fatalities and number of scientific studies.
Gesualdo is an Italian town in the province of Avellino, itself in the region of Campania. It is called "The city of the Prince of Musicians" in honour of Carlo Gesualdo. It has many palaces, fountains, belvederes, and a historical center, which was partially restored after the Irpinia earthquake in 1980.
Calabritto is an Italian town and a commune in the province of Avellino, Campania, Italy. It occupies a hilly-mountainous area at the eastern tip of the Monti Picentini range, in the upper Sele valley.
Guardia Lombardi, known as La Uàrdia in the Irpinian dialect, is a small town and comune in the Province of Avellino in Campania, Italy. At an elevation of 998 metres (3,274 ft), it is located in Irpinia in the Apennine Mountains of Southern Italy. It has experienced a number of major earthquakes throughout its history that have devastated the town, and is considered within zone 1 of the Protezione Civile's seismic classification index, indicating very high seismicity.
Montecalvo Irpino is a town and comune in the province of Avellino, Campania, southern Italy.
Irpinia is a geographical and cultural region of Southern Italy. It was the inland territory of the ancient Hirpini tribe, and its extent matches approximately today's province of Avellino.
The 1980 Irpinia earthquake took place in Italy on 23 November 1980, with a moment magnitude of 6.9 and a maximum Mercalli intensity of X (Extreme). It left at least 2,483 people dead, at least 7,700 injured, and 250,000 homeless.
The 1703 Genroku earthquake occurred at 02:00 local time on December 31. The epicenter was near Edo, the forerunner of present-day Tokyo, in the southern part of the Kantō region, Japan. An estimated 2,300 people were killed by the shaking and subsequent fires. The earthquake triggered a major tsunami which caused many additional casualties, giving a total death toll of at least 5,233, possibly up to 10,000. Genroku is a Japanese era spanning from 1688 through 1704.
The 1694 Irpinia–Basilicata earthquake occurred on 8 September. It caused widespread damage in the Basilicata and Apulia regions of what was then the Kingdom of Naples, resulting in more than 6,000 casualties. The earthquake occurred at 11:40 UTC and lasted between 30 and 60 seconds.
The 1930 Irpinia earthquake occurred at 00:08 UTC on 23 July, chiefly in an area known as Irpinia. It had a surface wave magnitude of 6.6 and a maximum intensity of X . The event caused 1,404 deaths and 4,624–7,000 injuries. The epicenter was near the boundaries between the regions of Basilicata, Apulia, and Campania.
On 5 February AD 62, an earthquake of an estimated magnitude of between 5 and 6 and a maximum intensity of IX or X on the Mercalli scale struck the towns of Pompeii and Herculaneum, severely damaging them. The earthquake may have been a precursor to the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in AD 79, which destroyed the same two towns. The contemporary philosopher and dramatist Seneca the Younger wrote an account of the earthquake in the sixth book of his Naturales quaestiones, entitled De Terrae Motu.
An earthquake occurred in Antioch on 13 December 115 AD. It had an estimated magnitude of 7.5 on the surface wave magnitude scale and an estimated maximum intensity of XI (Extreme) on the Mercalli intensity scale. Antioch and surrounding areas were devastated with a great loss of life and property. It triggered a local tsunami that badly damaged the harbour at Caesarea Maritima. The Roman Emperor Trajan was caught in the earthquake, as was his successor Hadrian. Although the consul Marcus Pedo Vergilianus was killed, they escaped with only slight injuries and later began a program to rebuild the city.
The area around Constantinople was affected by a major earthquake in AD 447. It caused serious damage to the recently completed Theodosian Walls in Constantinople, destroying 57 towers and large stretches of the walls. The historical records contain no mention of casualties directly associated with this earthquake, although many thousands of people were reported to have died in the aftermath due to starvation and a "noxious smell".
The second shock in the 1962 Irpinia earthquake sequence was the largest and most destructive in a series of earthquakes in the southern Apennines. It occurred on 21 August at 18:19 CET, measuring 6.15 and assigned a maximum intensity of IX (Violent). It was preceded by an Mw 5.68 foreshock, and followed by a 5.34 aftershock. The earthquakes resulted in nearly 20 fatalities and significant property losses.
The 1867 Central Java earthquake occurred on June 10 at between 04:20 and 04:30 local time. It struck off the southern coast of the Indonesian island with an estimated moment magnitude of 7.8 (Mw ). Widespread devastation occurred in Central Java, where as many as 700 people were killed. The intermediate-depth intraslab earthquake did not cause a tsunami.
The 1941 Hyūga-nada earthquake occurred off the coast of Kyushu, Japan at 19:02 local time on November 19. The earthquake measured 8.0 Mw and had a depth of 35 km (22 mi). A JMA seismic intensity of 5 was observed in Miyazaki City and Nobeoka City in Miyazaki Prefecture, and Hitoyoshi City in Kumamoto Prefecture. Due to the earthquake, a tsunami with a maximum wave height of 1.2 m was observed in Kyushu and Shikoku. The tsunami washed away many ships. Twenty-seven homes were destroyed and two people were killed. In Miyazaki, Ōita and Kagoshima prefectures, telephone services were disrupted. Subsidence by 8 cm (3.1 in) was recorded at Hyūga, Miyazaki. At Nobeoka, stone walls and embankments were damaged while roads cracked. It was felt as far as central Honshu.
