The Earthquake in Chilie is the 7th largest recorded quake

[berni_mccoy]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_earthquakes#Largest_earthquakes_by_magnitude

Chilie has had 1 larger recorded quake and three others greater than 8 in the past. The largest recorded quake ever was in Chilie, a 9.5 in 1960.

Every 2 points on the Richter scale is 1000 times more powerful, that is:

Richter = Energy Released
0 = 1 kg
2 = 1 metric ton
4 = 1 kiloton
6 = 1 megaton
8 = 1 gigaton
10 = 1 teraton

By comparison, Haiti was a 7.0 by with about 32 Megaton energy yield, this 8.8 quake released upwards of 30 Gigatons of energy or nearly 1000 times more powerful.

(on edit: corrected for updated quake number of 8.8)

[pleah]

1. K&R

[wtmusic]

2. A good friend was in Santiago for the 1960 quake

He said cars were literally bouncing up and down off the ground.

[MineralMan]

3. I remember the 1960 quake.

It was big news for this High School Sophomore. I'm rilly, rilly old. Feh!