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Discussion » Statements » Rosie's Corner » In purposeful playful EXAGGERATION an Answermug friend speaks of a 12.5 magnitude earthquake. Is it POSSIBLE?
RosieG

In purposeful playful EXAGGERATION an Answermug friend speaks of a 12.5 magnitude earthquake. Is it POSSIBLE?

What's the largest magnitude earthquake ever recorded? Have we any way of knowing before our recording began what magnitude quakes occurred WAY BACK WHEN? What would a 12.5 magnitude earthquake feel like? Would the shaking scramble our brains or break our bones? Some earthquakes hit with a JOLT JERK and keep jerking jolting. Some are rolling. Does it matter what the nature of the earthquake is that translates into how much damage it could do?

Posted - March 8, 2020
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Responses


  • 10699
    The largest earthquake ever recorded was 9.5.  

    Magnitudes are based on a scale of 10.  This means that for each whole number you go up on the magnitude scale, the amplitude of the ground motion goes up ten times. Thus, a magnitude 5 earthquake would result in ten times the level of ground shaking as a magnitude 4 earthquake (and 32 times as much energy would be released). To help put this into perspective, think of it it in terms of the energy released by explosives: a magnitude 1 quake (seismic wave) releases as much energy as blowing up 6 ounces of TNT. A magnitude 8 earthquake releases as much energy as detonating 6 million tons of TNT. 
    So while a magnitude 12.5 is theoretically possible (according to the math), the earth's plates aren't big enough to produce that much energy. 
      March 8, 2020 3:00 PM MDT
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  • 113301
    Thank you for your thoughtful and informative reply Shuhak. Betcha my friend knows that too. (inside joke). Was the San Francisco Earthquake the largest one in the United States? I know in other places in the world there have been some that were incredibly devastating. We Californians have due for THE BIG ONE for years. SIGH. Also isn't Old Faithful sitting on top of a fault and if an earthquake ever hits it it will be devastating? Why worry about potentials when we already have actuals that are worrisome? Right? Right.
      March 9, 2020 3:45 AM MDT
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  • 10699
    The 1906 SF earthquake is estimated to have been magnitude 7.9
    The largest earthquake in the US occurred in Alaska back in 1964, with a magnitude of 9.2
    Old faithful is not sitting on plate boundaries (like western California), but rather is part of a supervolcano ... and a very active supervolcano at that.  Yellowstone Park is the caldera of that supervolcano.
    We can only estimate magnitudes of earthquakes that occured prior to seismographs based on the damage they caused. (from photos, ruins, etc.).
      March 9, 2020 10:20 AM MDT
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