Following is a list of the deadliest quakes that have hit Europe over the last century:
SPAIN
- May 11, 2011: At least eight people died when a magnitude 5.1 quake rocked southern Spain. It was the deadliest earthquake in Spain since April 19, 1956 when a tremor wrecked buildings and killed 11 people in Albolote, a town in the southern Spanish province of Granada.
In 1884 more than 800 people died in a quake in the region surrounding the southern city of Granada.
GREECE
- August 12, 1953: A magnitude 7.2 quake killed 476 people on the Greek islands of Zakinthos and Cephalonia.
- September 7, 1999: A quake killed 143 people in Athens and the region north of the capital.
The deadliest quake in Greece, Europe's most quake-prone country, hit on April 3, 1881 when 3,550 people died.
ITALY
- December 28, 1908: A massive quake rocked southern Italy and left about 95,000 people dead in the Sicilian port city of Messina and in Reggio di Calabria, across the Strait of Messina.
- January 13, 1915: A quake in the central Abruzzi region killed 30,000 people.
- November 23, 1980: The southern Campania and Basilicata regions were rocked by a quake that left 2,916 people dead in the Naples region.
- April 6, 2009: About 300 people died in a quake that devastated the region around the city of L'Aquila in the Abruzzi mountains.
FRANCE
- June 11, 1909: A magnitude 6 quake killed 46 people in the southern Provence region and left several villages devastated.
Provence was also rocked by a tremor that left 5,000 people dead in 1227.
PORTUGAL
- The Portuguese capital Lisbon was practically wiped out by one of the worst quakes in European history on November 1, 1755 killing tens of thousands.
Share
