Home Research Emergency management Natural Hazards of Canada Earthquakes Significant earthquakes of the 19th and 20th centuries
All damage figures are in year 2000 dollars
1 1989 Magnitude: 6.3 map Ungava Peninsula, QC / December / First earthquake in eastern North America confirmed to have produced surface faulting.
2 1988 Magnitude: 6.0 map Saguenay region, QC / November / Felt in a 1,000-km radius from epicentre. Damage at Jonquière, Chicoutimi, La Baie, Québec and as far away as Montréal.
3 1985 Magnitude: 6.9 map Nahanni region, NWT / December / Widely felt in NWT, Alberta and BC. A smaller event (magnitude 6.6) in the same area two months earlier triggered an avalanche containing five to seven million cubic metres of rock.
4 1979 Magnitude: 7.2 map Yukon-Alaska border / February / Felt strongly in Canada, minor property damage in the Yukon.
5 1970 Magnitude: 7.4 map South of Queen Charlotte Islands, BC / June / Widely felt.
6 1958 Magnitude: 7.9 map Alaska-British Columbia border / July / People killed and much damage in Alaska. Parts of North-western B.C. and Southern Yukon strongly shaken.
7 1949 Magnitude: 8.1 map Off the Queen Charlotte Islands, BC / August / Felt over a wide area of western North America. Canada's largest earthquake. Some damage on Queen Charlotte Islands.
8 1946 Magnitude: 7.3 map Vancouver Island, BC / June / Widely felt. Extensive damage along the east coast of Vancouver Island; one person drowned.
9 1944 Magnitude: 5.6 map Eastern Ontario-New York border / September / Widely felt. Damage at Cornwall, ON.
10 1935 Magnitude: 6.2 map Quebec-Ontario border / November / Felt over much of eastern Canada. Minor damage at Temiscaming, QC and North Bay and Mattawa, ON.
11 1933 Magnitude: 7.3 map Baffin Bay / November / Largest earthquake ever known north of the Arctic Circle
12 1925 Magnitude: 6.7 map Charlevoix-Kamouraska region, QC / March / Widely felt. Considerable damage along the St. Lawrence River near the epicentre and some damage at Québec, Trois-Rivières and Shawinigan.
13 1918 Magnitude: 6.9 map Vancouver Island, BC / December / Widely felt, some minor damage near Estevan Point.
14 1918 Magnitude: 6.0 map Revelstoke, BC / February / Felt in the BC interior.
15 1909 Magnitude: 6.0 map Near south end of Strait of Georgia at a depth of about 65 km / January / Strongly felt in Canada, damage in U. S.
16 1899 Magnitude: 7.9 map Yukon-Alaska border / September / First of three great earthquakes in this region in the space of eight days. Strong effects experienced in many parts of northern British Columbia and southern Yukon.
17 1872 Magnitude: 7.4 map Washington-BC border / December / Widely felt.
18 1870 Magnitude: 6.5 map Charlevoix-Kamouraska region, QC / October / Widely felt. Minor damage at Baie-Saint-Paul.
19 1860 Magnitude: 6.0 map Charlevoix-Kamouraska region, QC / October / Widely felt. Minor damage at Rivière-Ouelle.
Back to Natural Hazards of Canada main page.
|