These are some of the most famous — and most powerful — earthquakes in history. Each one taught people something new about how to stay safe!
🌉 San Francisco, USA (1906)
On April 18, 1906, a magnitude 7.9 earthquake shook San Francisco for almost a whole minute. The shaking knocked down buildings, and broken gas pipes started fires that burned for three days. More than half the city's people lost their homes. Scientists learned so much from this quake that it helped start the modern science of earthquakes!
🇨🇱 Valdivia, Chile (1960)
This is the biggest earthquake ever recorded — a gigantic magnitude 9.5! The shaking lasted about 10 minutes, and it pushed up a tsunami that crossed the entire Pacific Ocean and reached Hawaii and Japan. The energy released was equal to thousands of atomic bombs.
🇯🇵 Tōhoku, Japan (2011)
On March 11, 2011, a magnitude 9.0 earthquake shook Japan and moved the main island 2.4 metres sideways! It also caused a massive tsunami and the whole planet rang like a bell for weeks. Japan now has one of the best earthquake warning systems in the world, which can warn people seconds before the shaking arrives.
A collapsed building in Padang, Indonesia, after a magnitude 7.6 earthquake in 2009. This is why engineers work hard to design buildings that can sway without falling down! See source ↓
📚 Picture Sources
- Photo 1 — Earthquake damage in Padang, Indonesia, 2009. From Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 2.0): https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:2009_earthquake_damage_in_Padang_(11).JPG
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