The progress in technology and development reaches new heights each year. Why is it so hard to predict earthquakes? Also the coast of Hawaii was reached by 10 meter high waves, and one day later reached a 5,5 meter high wave the coast of Japan. His almost 12 meter high waves devastated the city of Puerto Saavedra. The earthquake was followed by a huge tsunami. Otherwise the number of casualties would been much higher. Thereby many were able to save themselves by leaving there houses. Many people were able to save their lives because there were a lot of slighter tremors before. This earthquake costed 1655 people their life. It reached a value of about 9,5 on the Moment magnitude scale. The heaviest measured earthquake happened on the 22. Scientists assume that at this value the earth crust would collapse. The Moment magnitude scale has a limit by 10,6. Nowadays earthquakes are measured according the Moment magnitude scale. You often hear in the news or read in the newspaper that the earthquake had a certain value according the Richter scale, but that isn`t true. Heavy earthquakes are not measured by the Richter scale because when they reach a value over 6,5 the scale loses their accuracy. However the characteristics of the earth`s crust make an earthquake over 9,5 almost impossible, it would discharge before the value was exceeded. Often you hear that the Richter scale goes from <2 (slight tremor) to 10 (global disaster), but actually the scale is open at the top. This scale was invented by Charles Richter and Beno Gutenberg in 1935. The most popular technique to measure earthquakes is the Richter scale.

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