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Great Earthquakes

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Encyclopedia of Solid Earth Geophysics

Part of the book series: Encyclopedia of Earth Sciences Series ((EESS))

Definition

Any earthquake with magnitude over 8 Mw. Alternatively, any earthquake famous for one reason or another.

Introduction

Under the technical definition, one can find some very obscure “great” earthquakes – a magnitude 8 earthquake in the Southern Ocean is likely to go wholly unremarked by the world’s media. Also, given the inherent imprecision in magnitude scales, it is possible for an earthquake with a magnitude of 8.0 to be successively promoted to and demoted from the canon of greatness with each successive revision.

If one took a sample of educated laymen and asked them to name any earthquakes they could think of, one could be sure to get a few of the most recent high-profile calamities; further back, the results might vary from country to country. In the central USA, probably many are aware of the 1811 New Madrid earthquakes; in central Europe, the name of the 1356 Basel earthquake might come up, and so on. But probably not many could name correctly the largest earthquake...

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Acknowledgments

The author would like to thank Professor N.N. Ambraseys and Dr. D.J. Kerridge for helpful reviews of the text.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Earthquake Seismology, British Geological Survey, West Mains Road, Edinburgh, EH9 3LA, Scotland, UK

    Roger M. W. Musson

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  1. Roger M. W. Musson
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. National Geophysical Research Institute, Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, Hyderabad, India

    Harsh K. Gupta

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Musson, R.M.W. (2011). Great Earthquakes. In: Gupta, H.K. (eds) Encyclopedia of Solid Earth Geophysics. Encyclopedia of Earth Sciences Series. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-8702-7_7

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