What Was the Worst Earthquake In the United States and Where Did the Good Friday Earthquake Occur?

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Karen Hill

On the Richter scale, Alaska’s Good Friday earthquake in 1964 in Prince William Sound measured 9.2, the strongest ever recorded.

This quake was felt over a 500,000 square mile (1.3 million sq km) area, killed 114 people, and released more than 125 times the energy of the San Francisco earthquake of April 18, 1906.

But in terms of loss of life and property damage, the 1906 San Francisco earthquake was the most devastating.

It claimed 700 lives and caused millions of dollars of damage, much of it caused by the fires that followed.

Scientists at the U.S. Geological Survey estimate that it had a magnitude of 7.7 on the Richter scale; people hundreds of miles away felt it.

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