What are the strongest earthquakes ever recorded?
The 8.8-magnitude temblor set off warnings in Hawaii, North and Central America and Pacific islands south towards New Zealand.
Here's a glance at some of the most powerful earthquakes recorded previously, according to the US Geological Survey.
1. Biobío, Chile
A 9.5-magnitude earthquake struck in a central region of Chile in 1960. Known as the Valdivia earthquake or Great Chilean earthquake, the largest ever recorded temblor resulted in more than 1,600 deaths in the country and beyond, most of which were caused by the resulting large tsunami. Thousands of people were injured.
2. Alaska
In 1964, a 9.2-magnitude earthquake jolted the Alaska's Prince William Sound, lasting for almost five minutes. More than 130 people were killed in the largest recorded earthquake in the US and subsequent tsunami. There were huge landslides and towering waves that caused severe flooding. The event was followed by thousands of aftershocks for weeks after the initial quake.
3. Sumatra, Indonesia
A 9.1-magnitude earthquake and resulting tsunami devastated south-east and south Asia and east Africa in 2004, killing 230,000 people. Indonesia alone recorded more than 167,000 deaths as entire communities were wiped out.
4. Tohoku, Japan
A 9.1-magnitude earthquake struck off the coast of north-east Japan in 2011, triggering a towering tsunami that smashed into the Fukushima nuclear plant. It knocked out power and cooling systems and triggered meltdowns in three reactors. More than 18,000 people were killed in the quake and tsunami, some of whom have never been recovered.
5. Kamchatka, Russia
In 1952, a 9.0-magnitude quake caused significant damage but no reported deaths despite a tsunami that hit Hawaii with 9.1-metre (30ft) waves.
6. Biobío, Chile
An 8.8-magnitude earthquake hit central Chile in 2010, shaking the capital for a minute and half and setting off a tsunami. More than 500 people were killed in the disaster.
7. Esmeraldas, Ecuador
In 1906, an 8.8-magnitude earthquake and resulting tsunami killed 500 to 1,500 people. Its effects were felt for miles along the Central American coast and as far away as San Francisco and Japan.
8. Alaska
In 1965, an 8.7-magnitudequake struck Alaska's Rat Islands, causing a tsunami with waves 11 metres (35ft) high. There was some relatively minor damage, including cracks in buildings and in an asphalt runway.
9. Tibet
At least 780 people were killed when an 8.6-magnitude earthquake struck in 1950. Dozens of villages were destroyed, including at least one that slid into a river. There were also major landslides that jammed the Subansiri River in India. When the water eventually broke through, it resulted in a deadly 7-metre (23ft) wave.
10. Sumatra, Indonesia
In 2012, an 8.6-magnitude earthquake struck off the west coast of northern Sumatra, in Indonesia. Though the quake caused little damage, it increased pressure on a fault that was the source of the devastating 2004 tsunami.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Daily Mail
an hour ago
- Daily Mail
Trump's new NASA boss wants to build a nuclear reactor on the MOON
New NASA Administrator Sean Duffy's first project will be an attempt to take American energy dominance to the moon. Duffy, who is also Secretary of Transportation and took the job as NASA Administrator after the White House shut out Elon Musk's preferred candidate, will announce plans to build a nuclear reactor on the moon this week. The Daily Mail has reached out to NASA and the White House for comment. In 2022, NASA announced plans to put a nuclear reactor on the moon by 2030 as part of a vision to turn the lunar body into an orbiting power station but Duffy wants an expedited, more definite timeline. The goal is for United States to outpace China in 'winning the second space race,' a source told Politico. Earlier this year, it was revealed China may team up with Russia in an attempt to build their own lunar nuclear reactor. Sure enough, Duffy's directive claims that China or Russia or any American enemy could 'declare a keep-out zone which would significantly inhibit the United States' if they got to the moon first. Duffy's directive commands NASA to get someone to lead the effort in the next 60 days and solicit companies that can help launch ahead of China. A former Fox News and reality TV star, Duffy is also pushing an effort to replace the International Space Station. Duffy, a former Congressman from Wisconsin, oversees the $25 billion space agency. In 2022, the US space agency chose three design concept proposals for a fission power system that could be ready to launch by the end of the decade. It is unclear if Duffy is going from the same plans. The plan is for the 40-kilowatt class fission power system to last at least 10 years in the lunar environment, with the hope that it could one day support a permanent human presence on the moon, as well as support manned missions to Mars and beyond. If NASA is to build a base on the lunar surface, one of the major problems to solve will be how such a proposed settlement would be powered. Solar panels are great for powering rovers, but a human base would need a continuous and reliable source of power. NASA experts are looking into nuclear fission as the answer because the technology has been used extensively on Earth. Relatively small and lightweight compared to other power systems, fission systems are reliable and could enable continuous power regardless of location, available sunlight, and other natural environmental conditions, the US space agency said. If the demonstration of such a system on the moon was successful, it would pave the way for the fueling of longer duration journeys through space. It is hoped that the development of these fission surface power technologies will also help NASA advance nuclear propulsion systems that rely on reactors to generate power. These could then be used for deep space exploration missions. The goal will also be to beat China and Russia to the same mission. The East Asian country aims to become a major space power and land astronauts on the moon by 2030, and its planned Chang'e-8 mission for 2028 would lay the groundwork for constructing a permanent, manned lunar base. In a presentation in Shanghai, the 2028 mission's Chief Engineer Pei Zhaoyu showed that the lunar base's energy supply could also depend on large-scale solar arrays, and pipelines and cables for heating and electricity built on the moon's surface. Russia's space agency Roscosmos said last year it planned to build a nuclear reactor on the moon's surface with the China National Space Administration (CNSA) by 2035 to power the International Lunar Research Station (ILRS). The inclusion of the nuclear power unit in a Chinese space official's presentation at a conference for officials from the 17 countries and international organisations that make up the ILRS suggests Beijing supports the idea, although it has never formally announced it. 'An important question for the ILRS is power supply, and in this Russia has a natural advantage, when it comes to nuclear power plants, especially sending them into space, it leads the world, it is ahead of the United States,' Wu Weiren, chief designer of China's lunar exploration program, told Reuters on the sidelines of the conference. After little progress on talks over a space-based reactor in the past, 'I hope this time both countries can send a nuclear reactor to the moon,' Wu said.
Reuters
an hour ago
- Reuters
July quake appears to have damaged Russian nuclear sub base, NY Times reports
Aug 4 (Reuters) - A nuclear submarine base in Russia's remote Far East region was damaged last week following one of the most powerful earthquakes to hit the area in decades, the New York Times reported on Monday, citing satellite images. Photos captured by Planet Labs, a commercial satellite imaging firm, show damage to a floating pier at the Rybachiy submarine base on the Kamchatka Peninsula, the newspaper reported. One section of the pier appears to have broken away from its anchor point. Aside from the damaged pier, the satellite imagery does not show any other major destruction. Reuters could not independently verify the report. There was no immediate response from Russia's defence ministry outside business hours to a Reuters request for comment. A very powerful magnitude 8.8 earthquake off Russia's Far Eastern Kamchatka coast on Wednesday triggered tsunami warnings as far away as French Polynesia and Chile, and was followed by an eruption of the most active volcano on the peninsula. The Rybachiy nuclear submarine base, a strategic hub for Russia's Pacific Fleet, serves as a facility for the maintenance, deployment, and operations of the country's nuclear-powered submarines in the Pacific region.
The Independent
4 hours ago
- The Independent
Scientists believe they have solved the mystery of what killed more than 5 billion sea stars
Scientists have finally unravelled the decade-long mystery behind the devastating epidemic that has killed more than five billion sea stars off the Pacific coast of North America. The breakthrough identifies a specific bacterium as the culprit, offering a crucial step towards saving the iconic marine creatures. Since 2013, a mysterious sea star wasting disease has caused a mass die-off from Mexico to Alaska, affecting over 20 species and continuing its destructive path today. The sunflower sea star was particularly hard hit, losing approximately 90 per cent of its population within the first five years of the outbreak. "It's really quite gruesome," said marine disease ecologist Alyssa Gehman at the Hakai Institute in British Columbia, Canada, who contributed to pinpointing the cause. She described how healthy sea stars typically have "puffy arms sticking straight out," but the disease causes them to develop lesions before "their arms actually fall off." The long-sought answer, published in the journal Nature Ecology and Evolution, points to a bacterium that has also been found to infect shellfish. The findings "solve a long-standing question about a very serious disease in the ocean," commented Rebecca Vega Thurber, a marine microbiologist at the University of California, Santa Barbara, who was not involved in the study. Identifying the cause proved to be a complex, decade-long endeavour, fraught with false leads. Early research mistakenly focused on a densovirus, which was later found to be a normal resident within healthy sea stars, not linked to the disease, according to Melanie Prentice of the Hakai Institute, a co-author of the new study. Previous attempts also failed because researchers studied tissue samples from dead sea stars that no longer contained the vital bodily fluid surrounding their organs. The latest study, however, meticulously analysed this fluid, known as coelomic fluid, where the bacterium Vibrio pectenicida was ultimately discovered. Microbiologist Blake Ushijima of the University of North Carolina, Wilmington, who was not involved in the research, praised the team's "really smart and significant" detective work, noting the immense difficulty in tracing environmental disease sources, especially underwater. Scientists say they have solved the mystery of what killed more than 5 billion sea stars Show all 5 With the cause now identified, scientists are better positioned to intervene. Ms Prentice suggested that researchers could now test the remaining sea stars for health, considering relocation or captive breeding programmes to reintroduce them to areas where sunflower sea stars have been decimated. They may also investigate if certain populations possess natural immunity or if treatments like probiotics could boost resistance to the disease. The recovery of sea star populations is not merely about saving a single species; it is vital for the entire Pacific ecosystem. Healthy sea stars play a crucial role in controlling sea urchin populations. "They're voracious eaters," Ms Gehman explained about the Sunflower sea stars, despite their seemingly innocent appearance, as they consume almost everything on the ocean floor. The dramatic decline in sea stars led to an explosion in sea urchin numbers, which in turn devoured approximately 95 per cent of Northern California 's kelp forests within a decade. These kelp forests are critical habitats, providing food and shelter for a diverse array of marine life, including fish, sea otters, and seals. Researchers are hopeful that these new findings will enable them to restore sea star populations and, consequently, regrow the kelp forests that Ms Thurber aptly compares to "the rainforests of the ocean." ___ The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute's Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
