Largest earthquakes by magnitude Pos. Date Location Magnitude 1 1960-05-22 (May 22, 1960) Valdivia, Chile (see: 1960 Valdivia earthquake) 9.5 2 2004-12-26 (December 26, 2004) Off west coast of northern Sumatra, Indonesia (see: 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake) 9.3 3 1964-03-27 (March 27, 1964) Prince William Sound, Alaska, USA (see: 1964 Alaska earthquake) 9.2 4 1952-11-04 (November 4, 1952) Kamchatka, USSR (see: Kamchatka earthquakes) 9.0 [1][2] 5 1700-01-26 (January 26, 1700) Cascadia subduction zone (see: 1700 Cascadia earthquake) ~9 6 1906-01-31 (January 31, 1906) Colombia-Ecuador 8.8 7 1965-02-04 (February 4, 1965) Rat Islands, Alaska, USA 8.7 8 1833-11-25 (November 25, 1833) Sumatra, Indonesia (see: 1833 Sumatra earthquake) 8.8-9.2 9 1755-11-01 (November 1, 1755) Lisbon, Kingdom of Portugal (see: 1755 Lisbon earthquake) ~8.7 10 2005-03-28 (March 28, 2005) Sumatra, Indonesia 8.6-8.7* 11 1957-03-09 (March 9, 1957) Andreanof Islands, Alaska, USA (see: 1957 Andreanof Islands earthquake) 8.6 12 1920-12-16 (December 16, 1920) Ningxia-Gansu, China 8.6 13 1950-08-15 (August 15, 1950) Assam, India - Tibet, China (see: 1950 Medog earthquake) 8.6 14 1575-12-16 (December 16, 1575) Valdivia, Kingdom of Chile 8.5 15 2007-09-12 (September 12, 2007) Sumatra, Indonesia 8.5 16 2010-02-27 (February 27, 2010) Maule, Chile 8.8* 17 1737-10-16 (October 16, 1737) Kamchatka, Russian Empire (see: Kamchatka earthquakes) ~8.3 [3][4]
I was saying that they don’t get that much bigger than this although Chile holds the record with a 9.5. Still anything over 8.0 is going to cause total damage over a wide area. Luckily this area is very mountainous so that may break up the tremors.
Kaku on radio tonight too (I'm a fan of Kaku.)