What is the biggest earthquake that has occurred historically?
An earthquake in Chile in 1960 broke a fault over one thousand miles long, and had a moment magnitude of 9.5. • Q: What is the difference between an earthquake’s magnitude and its intensity? A: Magnitude is calculated from a measurement of either the amplitude or the duration of specific types of recorded seismic waves. Magnitude is determined from measurements made from seismograms and not on reports of shaking or interpretations of building damage. In general, the different magnitude scales (for example, local or Richter magnitude and surface wave magnitude) give similar numerical estimates of the size of an earthquake, and all display a logarithmic relation to recorded ground motion. That means each unit increase in magnitude represents an increase in the size of the recorded signal by a factor of 10. Therefore, a magnitude 7 earthquake would have a maximum signal amplitude 10 times greater than that of a magnitude 6 earthquake and 100 times greater than that of a magnitude 5 earthq
