10 The Largest Earthquake in History

     10 the largest earthquake in history. An earthquake is a vibration or shock that occurs in the earth's surface. Ordinary earthquakes are caused by movement of the earth's crust (tectonic plates).

Earthquakes because of the release of energy generated by the pressure carried by the moving plate. The longer the pressure was becoming enlarged and eventually reached the state where the pressure can not be detained again by the edge of the slab. That's when an earthquake will occur.

Earthquakes can cause tsunami. In Indonesia alone were afflicted by the earthquake and tsunami in December 2004 in NAD or more in the know with the Tsunami Aceh. In addition, in other countries also had an earthquake and resulting tsunami even, like Tsunami Japanese and others.

 From 1900 through 2012, at least 10 earthquakes recorded in the world that claimed thousands of lives. And the following is a list of the 10 strongest earthquakes ever recorded since 1900 until now.

1. Earthquake in Aceh, 11 April 2012 - 8.7 magnitude earthquake strike Aceh, 495.6 km from southwest of Banda Aceh. Tremors felt as far as Singapore, Thailand, and India.

 

2. Japan Tsunami, March 11, 2011 - Japan, the Japanese attacked the magnitude 9 earthquake, causing many casualties. U.S. Geological Survey to verify the earthquake is located at a depth of 24.3 km and its center at 130.3 km east of Sendai, on the island of Honshu.
This is the strongest earthquake ever recorded in Japan. The tsunami was triggered after the worst nuclear crisis in 25 years. More than 15 thousand people were killed by a combination of earthquake and tsunami.
Philippines, Taiwan, and Indonesia issued a tsunami warning. Tsunami warnings from the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center reaches Colombia and Peru.

 

3. Tsunami Chile, February 27, 2010 - Chile, the 8.8 magnitude earthquake and tsunami killed 500 people and caused $ 30 billion in damage, destroying hundreds of thousands of houses and destroyed roads, highways and bridges.

 

4. Nias earthquake, March 28, 2005 - 8.6 magnitude earthquake in Nias, Sumatra kills 1300 people.

 

5. Tsunami Aceh, 26 December 2004 - Indonesia, earthquake magnitude 9.1 strike the coast of Aceh province in Indonesia, causing a tsunami that killed 226 thousand people in Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Thailand, India, and nine other countries.

 

6. May 22, 1960 - Chile, magnitude 9.5 on the Richter Scale shook Santiago and Concepcion, causing sea waves and volcanic explosions. Around 5000 people were killed and 2 million people homeless.

 

7. Alaska, March 28, 1964, earthquake and tsunami that followed killed 125 people and caused $ 310 million loss. This magnitude 9.2 earthquake scale attack western Alaska and the Yukon Territory and British Columbia in Canada.

 

8. Rusia, 4 November 1952, the earthquake caused a tsunami that SR 9 reaches the Hawaiian Islands. There were no casualties in this earthquake.

 

9. Ecuador, January 31, 1906, the 8.8 magnitude earthquake strike the coast of Ecuador and Colombia, causing a tsunami that killed 1,000 people. Feel the vibrations along the coast of Central America and even to San Francisco and west of Japan.

10. Alaska, February 4, 1965, 8.7 magnitude earthquake generates a tsunami that reached 10.7 meters high on Shemya Island.

 

 

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	Location	Date UTC	Magnitude	Lat.	Long.	Reference
1.	Chile	1960 05 22	9.5	-38.29	-73.05	Kanamori, 1977
2.	Prince William Sound, Alaska	1964 03 28	9.2	61.02	-147.65	Kanamori, 1977
3.	Off the West Coast of Northern Sumatra	2004 12 26	9.1	3.30	95.78	Park et al., 2005
4.	Near the East Coast of Honshu, Japan	2011 03 11	9.0	38.322	142.369	PDE
5.	Kamchatka	1952 11 04	9.0	52.76	160.06	Kanamori, 1977
6.	Offshore Maule, Chile	2010 02 27	8.8	-35.846	-72.719	PDE
7.	Off the Coast of Ecuador	1906 01 31	8.8	1.0	-81.5	Kanamori, 1977
8.	Rat Islands, Alaska	1965 02 04	8.7	51.21	178.50	Kanamori, 1977
9.	Northern Sumatra, Indonesia	2005 03 28	8.6	2.08	97.01	PDE
10.	Assam - Tibet	1950 08 15	8.6	28.5	96.5	Kanamori, 1977
11.	Off the west coast of northern Sumatra	2012 04 11	8.6	2.311	93.063	PDE
12.	Andreanof Islands, Alaska	1957 03 09	8.6	51.56	-175.39	Johnson et al., 1994
13.	Southern Sumatra, Indonesia	2007 09 12	8.5	-4.438	101.367	PDE
14.	Banda Sea, Indonesia	1938 02 01	8.5	-5.05	131.62	Okal and Reymond, 2003
15.	Kamchatka	1923 02 03	8.5	54.0	161.0	Kanamori, 1988
16.	Chile-Argentina Border	1922 11 11	8.5	-28.55	-70.50	Kanamori, 1977
17.	Kuril Islands	1963 10 13	8.5	44.9	149.6	Kanamori, 1977

 

 

References
Johnson, J.M., Y. Tanioka, L.J. Ruff, K. Sataki, H. Kanamori, and L.R. Sykes, 1994, The 1957 great Aleutian earthquake, Pure and Appl. Geophys., 142, 3-28.
Kanamori, H., 1977, The energy release of great earthquakes, J. Geophys. Res. 82, 2981-2987.
Kanamori, H., 1988, Importance of historical seismograms for geophysical research, in Lee, W.H.K., Meyers, H., and Shimazaki, K., eds., Historical Seismograms and Earthquakes of the World: San Diego, Academic Press, p. 16-33.
Okal, E.A., and D. Reymond, The mechanism of great Banda Sea earthquake of 01 February 1983, 2003, Applying the method of Preliminary Determination of Focal Mechanism to a historical event, Earth Planet. Sci. Letts., 216, 1-15.
Park, J., T.-R. A. Song, J. Tromp, E. Okal, S. Stein, G. Roult, E. Clevede, G. Laske, H. Kanamori, P. Davis, J. Berger, C. Braitenberg, M. Van Camp, X. Lei, H. Sun, H. Xu, S. Rossat, 2005, Earth's free oscillations excited by the 26 December 2004 Sumatra-Andaman earthquake, Science, 308, 1139-1144.
PDE (Preliminary Determination of Earthquakes) Monthly Listing, U.S. Geological Suvery, Golden, CO.