1960 Valdivia earthquake
The 1960 Valdivia earthquake () or Great Chilean earthquake ("Gran terremoto de Chile") of 22 May is the most powerful earthquake ever recorded. Various studies have placed it at 9.4–9.6 on the moment magnitude scale. It occurred in the afternoon (19:11 GMT, 15:11 local time), and lasted approximately 10 minutes. The resulting tsunami affected southern Chile, Hawaii, Japan, the Philippines, eastern New Zealand, southeast Australia and the Aleutian Islands.
List of earthquakes in 1956
This is a list of earthquakes in 1956. Only magnitude 6.0 or greater earthquakes appear on the list. Lower magnitude events are included if they have caused death, injury or damage. Events which occurred in remote areas will be excluded from the list as they wouldn't have generated significant media interest. All dates are listed according to UTC time. Again a fairly active year. 11 magnitude 7.0+ earthquakes were recorded with the largest of those striking Greece in the summer. The event in Greece measured 7.7 and was one of the largest ever to affect the country. In all earthquakes in 1956 resulted in 910 fatalities. Iran had the deadliest event of the year with 347 deaths in October. Burma, Lebanon, Afghanistan Greece and India also suffered from deadly events.