World Records
The Strongest Earthquakes Ever Recorded: The Day Chile Shortened the Day
On 22 May 1960, the ground beneath southern Chile ruptured along a 1,000-kilometre fault, releasing a magnitude 9.5 earthquake — the most powerful ever recorded by instruments. It was so violent it shifted Earth's mass enough to measurably change the length of a day and set the entire planet ringing like a bell for weeks. Because the magnitude scale is logarithmic, this single quake released more energy than every other recorded earthquake of the 20th century combined.