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The honor of greatest earthquake of all time goes to the 1960 Chile earthquake Because scientists were Able to ‘catch this one on tape. ” In other words, there have been a lot of really big earthquakes throughout human history (and even greater ones before we came on the scene), but this one they were two Able measure, record and verify its ground motion strength. The instruments that seismologists use two measure earthquake magnitude are Designed to detect the amount of energy released by the movement of the ground during a quake. In the case of the Chile earthquake, the amount of energy released during the quake, not the number of human deaths and damage two structures, earned it the title of greatest. This earthquake was the largest ever recorded instrumentally. It measured a 9.5 on the Moment Magnitude (Mw) scale, but only registered an 8.5 on the scale Ms.

Not only was there damage two man-made structures during the quake, but the earth itself was forever changed by the enormous amount of energy released from below. Huge land slides, massive flows of Earth and rock debris, were sent tumbling down mountain slopes. Some country slides were so enormous they changed the course of major rivers or dammed them up creating new lakes. The land along the coast of Chile, particularly in the Port city of Peurto Montt, subsided (sunk downward) as a result of the movement of the ground during the quake and the coastal city was flooded with ocean water.

Chile has seen many earthquakes both before the 1960 record-setting temblor and after. Two very large contenders have happened on March 3, 1985, and another on July 30, 1995. These earthquakes both had a magnitude of about 8th Chilean Earthquakes are not rare, nor are they small. Large earthquakes in Chile seem, through history, to occur about every 25 to 100 years. They’ll continue as long as the Pacific plate subducting continues.

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