what was the largest earthquake ever recorded and cold there ever be a 10 on the richter scale or is that number a benchmark that can never be reached?

-- Jared Cestaro (cestaro@oswego.edu), April 19, 2001

Answers

Possibly the largest earthquake in history was recorded on July 5th, 1201 in Upper Egypt, Syria...approximately 1,100,000 people were killed. Check out www.geohaz.org for more info.

Dan

-- Dan Lake (danls1@aol.com), April 19, 2001.

The Richter Scale has no upper limit, but the largest known shocks have had magnitudes of 8.8 to 8.9. On average there is one Great Earthquake a year, that is an earthquake above 8.0. There is more about the Richter Scale and new methods for measuring earthquakes at:

-- Kelly Wirth (kwirth@oswego.edu), April 25, 2001.

Not to argue or anyhting, maybe it was after kelly posted but I thought there was one recorded around 9.2? Anyone know anyhting about that? I can't remeber where my guess be india or japan

-- Paul Roddy (paulhope@twcny.rr.com), September 23, 2002.

Chile had an earthquake measuring 9.5 on May 22 1960

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/4kids/facts.html you can also search for largest earthquake at http://google.com

-- Michael Johnson (michael@dialix.com.au), October 29, 2002.

thge richter scale is exponential. A 8 earthquake is ten times stronger than a 7 so it would be nearlymipossible to get a 10

-- Al (alzman85@yahoo.com), November 01, 2002.

In 1862, north of the Selenga's delta,(Lake Baikal) an area of land of about 200 square kilometres sank under water to a depth of 2 metres as the result of an earthquake whose magnitude, as A. Voznesensky stated, reached magnitude 11.

-- Marcy Bennett (marcybennett@yahoo.com), November 03, 2002.

The 9.2 earthquake was in Alaska in 1964.

-- Scott (uuzoo84@hotmail.com), November 04, 2002.

Previous posters to this forum are confusing Richter magnitude with moment magnitude. The largest Richter magnitude ever recorded was 8.9, while the largest moment magnitude was 9.5 (the 1960 Chilean earthquake). For comparitave purposes, the 1964 Alaskan earthquake measured 8.3 Richter magnitude had a 9.2 moment magnitude. To answer the initial question, no - you will NEVER see an earthquake greater than 10 (Richter magnitude). Primary (P) and secondary (s) waves lose their ability to propigate through earth-type material if their magnitude becomes too great.

-- Nicholas Bishop (nfbishop@engmail.uwaterloo.ca), December 07, 2002.

If it's not possible to have an earthquake over 10 on the richter scale then why does the rickter scale go up to 12? I think it is posslible to go over 10 because an earthquake could store enough power or the fault be just so huge. Who else agrees?

-- Matthew Himmelright (PennKid12@AOL.com), December 13, 2002.

If a Richter of 10 is the limit based on the physical medium (earth,rock, etc.), then how would you measure a Yucatan-like meteor impact that causes mantel layer surface and pressure waves. I think of it like pieces of wood floating on a pool. Hit a piece of wood with a hammer, you have an earthquake. The impact causes energy waves between the pieces of wood themselves and through the water also. If I hit a piece of wood with a hammer too hard, the wood will smash (I exceeded the magnitude of energy the wood could conduct, roughly speaking). Ok. Now I throw a baseball at 30,000 kph into the pool. The point of impact would be obliterated, but there would definitely be some pretty good waves in the pool. Is there a scale of measurement to show this kind of extreme?

-- Robert Wallace (bob@supernovalight.com), January 03, 2003.

Does anyone know the magnitude of the most recent large earthquake in California (San Francisco area)?

-- Julie Adams (jadams9@lsu.edu), January 22, 2003.

your mom

-- bob stuart (bstuart@hotmail.com), April 08, 2003.

volcanoes eat tonnes of poo and weez hahahahaha

-- jumjay mcdonalds (cestaro@oswego.edu), September 11, 2003.

Previous posters to this forum are confusing Richter magnitude with moment magnitude. The largest Richter magnitude ever recorded was 8.9, while the largest moment magnitude was 9.5 (the 1960 Chilean earthquake). For comparitave purposes, the 1964 Alaskan earthquake measured 8.3 Richter magnitude had a 9.2 moment magnitude. To answer the initial question, no - you will NEVER see an earthquake greater than 10 (Richter magnitude). Primary (P) and secondary (s) waves lose their ability to propigate through earth-type material if their magnitude becomes too great.

-- Douglas W. Colt (poppertop@aol.com), September 28, 2003.

The largest recent earthquake in the San Francisco bay area was a 7.1 in October of 1989. This is commonly referred to as the Loma Prieta quake. You may also remember the quake because it struck during the World Series with the A's and the Giants battling the "Bay Series" for the title. Many people credit the baseball game for saving lives on the 880 freeway (where large parts of the double-decker freeway collapsed) because traffic was much lighter at 5:04 PM when the earthquake struck as people were at home watching the game.

-- Robert Mitchell (rmitch9393@aol.com), November 02, 2003.

The richter scale is exponential, but an earthquake that is 1 unit greater on this scale is actually 63X the energy of one unit below. its only logarithmic in terms of the rayleigh wave amplitude (ie. if the wave amplitude is 10 times larger then it will increase by 1 unit). BUt a wave that is 10X larger actually has 63X more energy (it would be 100X, but you must correct for certain values).....

-- Derek Morris (dm0@mail.mcgill.ca), November 26, 2003.

I guess I'd have to go with the one in 1201 in Upper Egypt but I don't really know. We are wondering if anyone knows how deep the crevices got from the earthquake during the 3rd game of the 1984 world series.

-- Katie and Laura (kaslamka@uwm.edu), December 03, 2003.

i guess i'd have to go with the one in 1201 in upper egypt but i don't really know. we are wondering if anyone knows how deep the crevices from the earthquake during the 1984 world series got.

-- katie and laura (kaslamka@uwm.edu), December 03, 2003.

Al (alzman85@yahoo.com), November 01, 2002. thge richter scale is exponential. A 8 earthquake is ten times stronger than a 7 so it would be nearlymipossible to get a 10

yes it is exponential, but not by a factor of 10..

an 8 on the richter scale is "twice" as strong as a 7.. NOT. 10 times!

-- Dave (bs@truckload2000.com), December 23, 2003.

Richter scale is 12 because its possible to be a 12 richter EQ. but the 12 richter EQ. happen 1 in 1000 years and it happens to arise Mountain on the world.

-- Mehran Mahouti (mehranamhouti@hotmail.com), January 01, 2004.

i dont have an answer i am just seriously bored so ya there you go!!!!!! Joey is a freak show!!! j/k

-- wouldnt you like to know!!! (misspixiespixiedust@aol.com), May 27, 2004.

Now all of us know that how a 9 Richter EQ can be Powerfull and destroyer. i wish God helps them.

-- Mehran Mahouti (mehranmahouti@hotmail.com), January 03, 2005.