The
1907 Kingston earthquake which shook the capital of the island of
Jamaica with a magnitude of 6.5 on the
moment magnitude scale on Monday January 14, at about 3:30 pm local time (20:36
UTC), was considered by many writers of that time one of the world's deadliest earthquakes recorded in history. Every building in
Kingston was damaged by the
earthquake and subsequent fires, which lasted for three hours before any efforts were made to check them, culminated in the death of 800 to 1,000 people, and left approximately 10,000 homeless and $25,000,000 in material damage.