Assessing and Managing Earthquake Risk

Table 1. 1 reports the world’s largest earthquakes since 1900 with respect to number of deaths (larger than or equal to 10 000), also showing the region of occurrence and the corresponding magnitudes. Both, from Figure 1. 2 and Table 1. 1 it is interesting to note that this period of time is characterized by an annual average of 15 000 deaths with two main fluctuations (modal values), the largest in the period 1900 to 1940 and another with a larger value in the decade of 1970-80. Figure 1. 2 shows the number of total deaths from the greatest earthquakes that occurred in the XX century. Although the number of victims has a tendency to decrease with time, the economic losses are increasing significantly (see Chapter 18 of this book). Table 1. 1. World earthquakes since 1900 with number of deaths greater than 10 000 Year Region Deaths Magnitude Year Region Deaths Magnitude 1905 India 19000 8. 6 1960 Agadir, Morocco 12000 5. 9 1906 Chile 20000 8. 6 1962 Iran 12000 7. 3 1907 Central Asia 12000 8. 1 1968 Iran 10000 7. 3 1908 Italy 70000 7. 5 1970 Yunnan, China 10000 7. 5 1915 Italy 29980 7. 5 1970 Peru 67000 7. 7 1917 Indonesia 15000 - 1972 Nicaragua 10000 6. 2 1918 China 10000 7. 3 1976 Guatemala 23000 7. 5 1920 China 220000 8. 5 1976 242000 7. 8 Tangshan, China 1923 Japon 142807 7. 9 1978 25000 7.