Magnitude 12 earhquake

Meatpie

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Theoratically speaking, the Richter scale has no upper limit.

Earthquakes larger than 9.5 have never been recorded but meteor impacts can and scientist belive have caused event around 13 on the Richter scale.

That is a really a lot, a frightening amount of energy released in a short span of time.

That is why earthquakes are so devastating.

For example an earthquake of 12 on the Richter scale is equivalent to 160 trillion tons of TNT.

To generate such an earthquake, a fault must be half the diamter of earth and the earthquake is likely to last for more than half an hour.

But 160 trillion tons of TNT is the amount of energy the earth receives from the Sun every day!
 
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