Earthquakes are caused by movements within the Earth's crust and uppermost mantle. They range from weak events detectable only by seismometers, to sudden and violent events lasting many minutes which have caused some of the greatest disasters in human history. Below, earthquakes are listed by period, region or country, year, magnitude, cost, fatalities, and number of scientific studies.

The following is a summary list of earthquakes with over approximately 100,000 deaths. The 893 Ardabil earthquake is most likely the same as the 893 Dvin earthquake, due to misreading of the Arabic word for Dvin, "Dabil" as "Ardabil".

For those which occurred before the development and deployment of seismographs – starting around 1900 – magnitudes are estimated from historical reports of the extent and severity of damage.

This is the top ten major earthquakes by the US dollar value of property (public and private) losses directly attributable to the earthquake.

The 50 most studied earthquakes according to the International Seismological Centre (ISC), based on a count of scientific papers (mostly in English) that discuss that earthquake. The "Event #" is linked to the ISC Event Bibliography for that event.

Modified from figure 2, "The most studied events", at the ISC's Overview of the ISC Event Bibliography.

International Seismological Centre. Event Bibliography. Thatcham, United Kingdom. 2018.