Most powerful earthquake

The most powerful instrumentally measured earthquake is generally acknowledged to be the Chilean earthquake of 22 May 1960, which had a magnitude of 9.5 Mw on the moment magnitude scale. In Chile it killed more than 2,000, injured 3,000 and left an estimated 2 million people homeless, but the resultant tsumani (giant wave) caused massive damage and around 200 deaths thousands of kilometres away in Hawaii, Japan and the US west coast. The quake originated around 100 miles (160 km) off the Chilean coast, parallel to the city of Valdivia.

The quake registered 8.3 on the Richter scale.

A more recent major natural disaster, the Sumatra-Andaman Islands earthquake in the Indian Ocean on 26 December 2004, registered 9.1–9.3 on the moment magnitude scale and lasted between 500 and 600 seconds.