One of the strongest quakes ever measured. It released so much energy it is thought to have shortened the length of a day by a millionth of a second.
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DownloadThe 2010 Maule earthquake struck on February 27, 2010, registering magnitude 8.8 (moment magnitude, Mw). Each whole step on the moment-magnitude scale is roughly 32 times more energy, so this released on the order of 15,849× the energy of a magnitude 6.0 earthquake.
Its epicenter was located near 36.12°S, 72.90°W, at a depth of about 23 km — a shallow crustal earthquake. Shallow earthquakes like this release their energy close to the surface, which is why the shaking near the epicenter was so violent.
An estimated 558 people were killed.