“The strength of the field at the Earth’s surface ranges from less than 30 microteslas (0.3 gauss) to over 60 microteslas (0.6 gauss). The average magnetic field strength in the Earth’s outer and inner core was measured to be 25 Gauss, 50x stronger than the magnetic field at the surface.”
By comparison:
50 gauss: a typical refrigerator magnet
100 gauss: a small iron magnet
15,000-30,000 gauss: a medical magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) electromagnet.
But a refrigerator magnet can't flux hundreds of thousands of miles into space. And if a magnetic field so huge distorts so much before and during an earthquake, then there is more to an earthquake than just two rocks rubbing together.