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 1950
This is a list of earthquakes in 1950. 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. The main event which dominated the year in terms of magnitude and deaths was the earthquake which struck India in August. With a magnitude of 8.6, it was one of the largest earthquakes of all time, and affected the eastern part of the country. There were 1,530 deaths, which was around three quarters of the yearly total. A number of other deadly events struck Colombia, Venezuela and Peru. There were 21 magnitude 7.0+ quakes. Aside from India, Chile was hit by a magnitude 8.2 event in December that left one person dead. Aftershock sequences contributed to a large number of magnitude 6.0–6.9 events, especially in India and Vanuatu (which also saw four magnitude 7.0+ quakes). Monthly summaries are included for the first time due to a rise in events being recorded and will continue to be featured every year from now.