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 1938
This is a list of earthquakes in 1938. 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. This was once again a very busy year with 22 events reaching 7.0+. Topping the list was a huge quake which struck the Banda Sea, Indonesia in February. At a magnitude of 8.5 this was one of the largest earthquakes of all time. Despite the large size no deaths were reported. Considering the array of large events, the death toll for the year was only 296. Turkey saw the majority of the deaths due to a 6.6 magnitude event in April. November 1938 saw a series of large quakes strike off the east coast of Honshu, Japan. Also in November was a magnitude 8.3 which struck Alaska. Generally Indonesia and Japan saw most of the large 7.0+ events.