Whats the highest earth quake on the rector scale?

Question

In USA (or say country)

Answer 1

The largest earthquake ever recorded measured 9.5 on the Richter scale in Chile in 1960. The largest earthquake in North America measured 8.4 - 8.6 on the Richter scale in Alaska on March 27, 1964.

Answer 2

The largest earthquake ever recorded with modern methods was on May 22nd, 1960 in Chile. It measured 9.5 of the Richter scale. You might want to take a look at the USGS's website of historic earthquakes to see the other high magnitude quakes that have been measured since 1900.

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/regional/world/10_largest_world.php

However, this doesn't account for the terrible quakes that have killed scores before 1900. For that you might want to look at the historical quakes that weren't recorded with modern methods but do have some historical information available. It seems the deadliest of these was in China in 1556 killing 830,000 people. See here for more:
http://www.livescience.com/forcesofnature/deadliest_earthquakes.html

Answer 3

12

Answer 4

Probably the biggest earthquake was before Richter invented the scale.

The one on the the San Andreas Fault in 1905 was probably the biggest in America, from the destruction of San Francisco all the way up to Anchorage,Alaska.

The loudest sound ever heard by man was the eruption of Krakatoa, a volcano near Java. It left a hole in the sea floor five miles wide, and spewed rock into the air over 150 miles high. It was heard 3,000 miles away in Australia, and created a tsunami tidal wave 130 feet high that killed 100,000 people in Java.

Answer 5

I believe the scale goes to 12. However, the highest recorded is around 9 - one in Chile in 1960, and the recent Indonesian one that produced a Tsunami that killed 300,000 people.

Calculations show that an asteroid impact like the one that purportedly killed the dinosaurs would produce an Earthquake around Ritcher 11.

Answer 6

10.9