The earth’s surface can show the apparent earthquake when it shakes and sometimes there can be a displacement in the ground. Larger earthquakes are measured using the moment magnitude and smaller tremors are mostly measured using a local magnitude scale referred over the Richter scale. The largest earthquakes in historic times mark notable events that mostly unforgettable especially among victims of such disastrous event. The recent largest earthquake has a magnitude of 9.0 which happened on 11th March 2011 in Japan.

Valdivia earthquake occurred in Valdivia, Chile on May 22nd, 1960 was known as the Great Chilean Earthquake. It was noted for being the most powerful earthquake ever recorded on Earth with a rate of 9.5 on the moment magnitude scale. It resulted to tsunami affecting southern Chile, Japan, Hawaii, Philippines, Aleutian Islands in Alaska, eastern New Zealand and southeast Australia. Its epicenter was close to Lumaco, about 570 km south of Santiago with the closest large city of Temuco but Valdivia was greatly affected but luckily death toll and economic loss were not obvious only that localized tsunamis severely ruined the Chilean coast. Main tsunami raced across the Pacific Ocean and destroyed Hilo, Hawaii with waves 10.7 meters high which was 10, 000 km tall from the epicenter. It’s a comparable distance between Philippines and Japan.

Another devastating largest earthquake is the Alaska temblor which was located in Prince William Sound of Alaska, USA on March 27th, 1964 with a high magnitude of 9.2 became popularly known as Great Alaskan Earthquake, also called as the Good Friday Earthquake and the Portage Earthquake. It was indeed a megathrust earthquake that started on Good Friday across the south-central Alaska, where collapsing structures, ground fissures and tsunami arise causing the death of 131 people in an instant. It lasts for 4 minutes and was notable for its most powerful magnitude making it the second largest earthquake recorded in U.S. and North American history.

The Indian Ocean earthquake took a record being the largest temblor undersea that made a megathrust shaking on Sunday of December 26th, 2004 with a ranging magnitude of 9.1 – 9.3 created by its epicenter along the west coast of Sumatra, Indonesia making it known as the Sumatra – Andaman in the scientific community. Although it affects fourteen different countries worldwide, Indonesia was hit most followed by Sri Lanka, Thailand and India. This earthquake has the longest time duration of observed faulting between 8.3 to 10 minutes. It further caused a vibration of 0.4 inches on the entire planet which triggered other quakes as distant as Alaska.