Earthquakes are probably the most horrifying natural calamities to hit mankind. Our inability to predict and warn the populace in advance is what makes them so devastating. The following list presents the most powerful earthquakes ever.

10. 1 November 1755 – Lisbon
Magnitude 8.7
The near-total destruction of Lisbon and the deaths of a quarter of the city’s population were caused by an earthquake, followed by a tsunami and fire, that was felt in north Africa, France and northern Italy. In the age of enlightenment, the cultural impact of the quake spread even further afield as the horrors of Lisbon provided inspiration for sensationalist artworks and philosophical tracts. Voltaire penned a poem on the catastrophe and scientists found a wealth of written first-hand accounts to advance their understanding of the physical world.

9. 13 January 1906 – coast of Ecuador
Magnitude 8.8
Emanating from the ocean off Ecuador and Colombia, the quake generated a tsunami that killed between 500 and 1,500 people along a coastline from Central America to San Francisco. To the west in Hawaii, rivers suddenly drained about 12 hours after the first shocks, then were submerged as a series of successively larger waves flooded the coast.

8. 27 February 2010 – off Bio-Bio, Chile
Magnitude 8.8
The region around Concepción has been recorded as a centre for seismic shocks since the 16th century, but few have been as devastating as the early morning quake that generated a Pacific-wide tsunami and cost the lives of 521 people. With a further 12,000 injured and more than 800,000 left homeless, Chile was left reeling at the scale of a disaster that would cost the nation $30bn by the end of 2010.

7. 26 January 1700 – North Pacific coast of America
Magnitude 9 (estimated)
The only North American account of one of the continent’s largest earthquakes comes from the oral history of native Americans near Vancouver island which describes how the large community of Pachena bay was wiped out by a huge wave. Across the pacific, the quake was accurately recorded by Japanese observers of the large tsunami that struck Japan on 27 January 1700. The power of that inundation has been used by historians and seismologists to pinpoint the magnitude of the Vancouver quake.

6. 13 August 1868 – Arica, Peru (now part of Chile)
Magnitude 9
Hawaii also felt the force of the tsunami created by this pacific basin earthquake, but here the destruction was just as heavy in South America with the city of Arequipa destroyed and 25,000 killed. The quake was felt as far away as La Paz in Bolivia. Four hours after the first shocks, waves as high as 16 metres inundated the coast and carried one US gunboat two miles inland to rest precariously on the edge of a 60m cliff.

5. 4 November 1952 – Kamchatka
Magnitude 9
The volcanic Russian peninsula was near the epicentre of the quake, but it was the Hawaiian islands that took the brunt of the tsunami that caused a million dollars’ worth of damage as waves scoured the coasts, ripping boats from their moorings and, in Honolulu harbour, lifting a cement barge before throwing it down on to a freighter. No deaths were recorded, unless you count the six cows lost by one unfortunate Oahu farmer, who was left cursing an event that had occurred more than 3,000 miles away.

4. 11 March 2011 – Near the east coast of Honshu, Japan
Magnitude 9
At least 15,703 people killed, 4,647 missing, 5,314 injured, 130,927 displaced and at least 332,395 buildings, 2,126 roads, 56 bridges and 26 railways destroyed or damaged by the earthquake and tsunami along the entire east coast of Honshu from Chiba to Aomori.
This quake was initially assessed a 6.8, and the seismic data will show anyone the epicenter was inland, not at sea.
So it started a 6.8, then got upgraded to a 7.9, then got upgraded to an 8.4, then got upgraded to an 8.8, then got upgraded to a 9.0, and had the epicenter put out in the ocean.
Now many are saying it was a 9.1 which would bump up MYG011′s number to 1200 from 1070, and it is all based on tsunami effects, not seismic data.
One problem with people grasping how big a 9.0 is, is exponential charts which will hide how much energy is really being released behind confusing gradient marking. To answer the need for clarity, I got out the calculator and produced a chart that shows you how big a 9.0 earthquake is on a linear scale. Make sure you expand and scroll it, it is 5,000 pixels tall. Due to its large vertical height it opens on the left side of the screen and is almost invisible until you expand it. Confusion over how GIANT a 9.0 really is has helped the elite scammers enormously in their lie. There is simply no way much of anything will remain standing, yet as the tsunami rolls in…

3. 26 December 2004 – Off the west coast of northern Sumatra
Magnitude 9.1
The deadliest tsunami in history was felt in 14 countries across Asia and east Africa, triggered by a “megathrust” as the Indian tectonic plate was forced beneath the Burmese plate. Indonesia was the worst affected with an estimated 170,000 of the nearly 230,000 dead. With many of the victims’ bodies missing, the eventual death toll took a month to establish. Some the world’s poorest communities lost more than 60% of their fishing and industrial infrastructure.

2. 28 March 1964 – Prince William Sound, Alaska
Magnitude 9.2
The Gulf of Alaska was devastated by the Prince William Sound earthquake that caused landslides in Anchorage and raised parts of outlying islands by as much as 11 metres. The resulting tsunami reached heights of 67 metres as it swept into the shallow Valdez inlet and was responsible for most of the 128 deaths and $311m worth of damage. The massive water displacement was felt as far away as the Louisiana Gulf coast and registered on tidal gauges in Puerto Rico.

1. 22 May 1960 – Chile
Magnitude 9.5
The world’s most powerful earthquake left 4,485 people dead and injured and 2 million homeless after it struck southern Chile in 1960. The port of Puerto Saavedra was destroyed in the ensuing tsunami, which caused $550m worth of damage in Chile and killed a further 170 people as five-metre waves hit the coasts of Japan and the Philippines. A day later Volcán Puyehue in Chile’s lake district spewed ash 6,000m into the air in an eruption that lasted for several weeks.