The 10 Most Destructive Earthquakes in Human History

7) Ashgabat, Turkmenistan: 1948

The name Ashgabat means “city of love” in Arabic and at the time the entire country of what is now Turkmenistan was part of the Soviet Union. On October 7th, 1948, a massive earthquake leveled the city, killing 110,000 of the 198,000 residents of Ashgabat. The city pretty much had to be completely rebuilt as 98% of Ashgabat’s buildings were destroyed during the quake.

The massive earthquake is now estimated to have been somewhere between a 7.3 and 10 on the Richter scale.

6) Ancash, Peru: 1970

Around 25,000 residents of the Peruvian town, Yungay, were killed during the 8.0 earthquake which struck on May 31st, 1970 while most people there were watching the World Cup. Those who died accounted for most of the population of the city of Yungay. The quake caused massive avalanches coming down from Mount Huascaran which buried nearly the entire town. The loss of life was so great that excavations on the city were forbidden afterwards as the town was declared a national cemetery. Some 800,000 people were left homeless.

The current town of Yungay is located about a mile from the original. Other towns near Yungay also sustained incredible loss of life and property, and the total death toll reached around 74,000 people.