text: where was the largest eathquake?   ten of the fifteen largest earthquakes in the united states have occurred in alaska, and eight of the fifteen largest in the continental united states have occurred in california. recent earthquakes that affected the united states include the feb., 1971, movement of the san fernando fault near los angeles. it rocked the area for 10 sec, thrust parts of mountains 8 ft (2.4 m) upward, killed 64 persons, and caused damage amounting to $500 million. in 1989, the loma prieta earthquake above santa cruz shook for 15 seconds at an intensity of 7.1, killed 67 people, and toppled buildings and bridges. in jan., 1994, an earthquake measuring 6.6 with its epicenter in n los angeles caused major damage to the city's infrastructure and left thousands homeless.specific earthquake articles [edit] pre-20th century shaanxi earthquake (1556). deadliest known earthquake in history, estimated to have killed 830,000 in china.  cascadia earthquake (1700).  kamchatka earthquakes (1737 and 1952).  lisbon earthquake (1755).  new madrid earthquake (1811).  fort tejon earthquake (1857).  charleston earthquake (1886). largest earthquake in the southeast and killed 100.  [edit] 20th century san francisco earthquake (1906).  great kanto earthquake (1923). on the japanese island of honshu, killing over 140,000 in tokyo and environs.  kamchatka earthquakes (1952 and 1737).  quake lake (1959) 7.5 on richter scale. formed a lake in southern montana, usa  great chilean earthquake (1960). biggest earthquake ever recorded, 9.5 on moment magnitude scale.  good friday earthquake (1964) alaskan earthquake.  ancash earthquake (1970). caused a landslide that buried the town of yungay, peru; killed over 40,000 people.  sylmar earthquake (1971). caused great and unexpected destruction of freeway bridges and flyways in the san fernando valley, leading to the first major seismic retrofits of these types of structures, but not at a sufficient pace to avoid the next california freeway collapse in 1989.  tangshan earthquake (1976). the most destructive earthquake of modern times. the official death toll was 255,000, but many experts believe that two or three times that number died.  guatemala (1976). 7.5 on the richter scale, causing 23,000 deaths, 77,000 injuries and the destruction of more than 250,000 homes.  great mexican earthquake (1985). 8.1 on the richter scale, killed over 6,500 people (though it is believed as many as 30,000 may have died, due to missing people never reappearing.)  whittier narrows earthquake (1987).  armenian earthquake (1988). killed over 25,000.  loma prieta earthquake (1989). severely affecting santa cruz, san francisco and oakland in california. this is also called the world series earthquake. it struck as the world series was just getting underway. revealed necessity of accelerated seismic retrofit of road and bridge structures.  northridge, california earthquake (1994). damage showed seismic resistance deficiencies in modern low-rise apartment construction.  great hanshin earthquake (1995). killed over 6,400 people in and around kobe, japan.  i̇zmit earthquake (1999) killed over 17,000 in northwestern turkey.  düzce earthquake (1999)  chi-chi earthquake (1999)  baku earthquake (2000).  [edit] 21st century nisqually earthquake (2001).  gujarat earthquake (2001).  dudley earthquake (2002).  bam earthquake (2003).  parkfield, california earthquake (2004). not large (6.0), but the most anticipated and intensely instrumented earthquake ever recorded and likely to offer insights into predicting future earthquakes elsewhere on similar slip-strike fault structures.  chuetsu earthquake (2004).  indian ocean earthquake (2004). one of the largest earthquakes ever recorded at 9.0. epicenter off the coast of the indonesian island sumatra. triggered a tsunami which caused nearly 300,000 deaths spanning several countries.  sumatran earthquake (2005).  fukuoka earthquake (2005).  kashmir earthquake (2005). kil