May 1, 2008, , Wenchuan, Sichuan, , a major earthquake destroyed an area of 500,000 square kilometers, affecting nearly 46.256 million people, leaving tens of thousands of Sichuan compatriots homeless overnight. Until today, this is still the most destructive, most widely affected and most disaster relief earthquake since the founding of New China. An earthquake of magnitude 8 can produce such huge destructive power. So how destructive will it be if a magnitude 10 earthquake occurs? In the face of a magnitude 10 earthquake, is there any possibility of human beings still living?
Earthquake is a natural disaster caused by movement of the earth's crust. Once an earthquake occurs, there is basically no warning. With the current technical level, it is impossible to predict that the earthquake is coming earlier. In this regard, scientists also define earthquakes of different magnitudes based on the destructive power generated by earthquakes. In order to give people a more intuitive understanding of the magnitude of earthquakes, people will use the seismometer to determine the magnitude.
An earthquake with a magnitude of 8 to 8.9 will instantly cause large-scale damage to places within hundreds of kilometers. Earthquakes with a magnitude of 9 to 9.9 will be much scarier than the above-mentioned earthquake magnitude. The area that causes serious damage alone can go thousands of kilometers away. This statement is not that people deliberately exaggerate the destructive power of earthquake magnitude. There are real events recorded in history!
As early as 2011, a magnitude 9 earthquake occurred in , Sendai City, Japan. The source of the earthquake was 120 kilometers east of Sendai City, and it occurred 29 kilometers underground in this location. The land near Sendai City cracks occurred due to the earthquake, and even triggered a very huge tsunami. According to the data recorded at that time, the earthquake in , Sendai City, Japan in 2011 killed 18,500 people locally, and the losses caused by the earthquake were as high as billions of dollars. So if the magnitude of the earthquake reached magnitude 10, what a terrible scene would it cause?
From the digital perspective, we only think that a magnitude 10 earthquake is only one magnitude more than a magnitude 9. However, in terms of the degree of damage, the destructive power of a magnitude 10 earthquake is almost more than 10 times that of a magnitude 9 earthquake. A magnitude 9 earthquake can produce such a huge destructive power, and the destructive power of a magnitude 10 earthquake is simply unimaginable.
Once in 1960, the largest earthquake in history suddenly hit the Republic of Chile in South America, and the earthquake occurred in the depths of a trench near Chile. According to data records, the earthquake that year was caused by a formation called the "subduction zone" that dived downward and directly affected the mantle layer, resulting in huge pressure. In the end, this pressure changed under the influence of time, which led to the huge destructive earthquake that year.
The earthquake occurred in Chile that year, 6,000 people lost their lives because of this earthquake. If the earthquake rating in Chile in 1960 is evaluated according to the current earthquake rating, the earthquake in Chile can reach 9.5. However, due to the impact of the earthquake recorded in that year, the current magnitude cannot be compared.
We all know that the destructive power generated by earthquakes is very huge, but in most earthquakes, the vibration will only last for about two minutes, and an earthquake with a magnitude of 10 will cause the entire crust to last for 20 minutes. Let’s take “Beautiful Country” as an example. If a magnitude 10 earthquake occurred on the “Hayward Fault” of San Francisco Bay , will this mean urban destruction for California ?
Scientists have made a guess based on the magnitude 7 earthquake that occurred in California that year. What they are sure is that once a magnitude 10 earthquake occurs, the entire "California" will almost face destruction, and people have no way to avoid the impact of this earthquake. According to the report of , the sudden earthquake in California that year caused at least 800 people to die in the earthquake, and 18,000 people were injured to varying degrees. However, this data has not been counted yet, and the number of people who died from fires caused by the earthquake has caused the explosion of natural gas pipelines.
If a magnitude 10 earthquake occurs in California, it will cause 8,000 buildings to collapse and 100,000 buildings to be demolished. There will be 2 million people who will die in this earthquake, and almost all roads will be paralyzed, and from then on, "California" will become a ruin. Such consequences have not yet been taken into account the tsunamis, aftershocks, etc. caused by earthquakes
In fact, there are also earthquakes in the European continent. In 2011, a magnitude 6.6 earthquake hit Italian towns. The earthquake instantly razed the entire town to the ground, and even a nearby mountain disappeared due to the impact of the earthquake. The town has since become a ruin, and even the iconic churches here cannot survive. It is reported that the earthquake is the most influential earthquake in Italy since 190.
But fortunately, there were no reports of the earthquake that caused the death of local residents in this earthquake. At the same time, they were also glad that the sudden earthquake did not reach the terrifying level of magnitude 10. If a magnitude 10 earthquake occurs here, it is estimated that the town will turn into ruins within 10 seconds, and nearby mountains may also form landslides, posing a direct or indirect threat to the town.
December 26, 2004, this day was very profound for Australian residents. An earthquake with a magnitude of 9.1 came without warning and directly broke the fault line, even hitting the geological plates of Australia and India. The earthquake's source occurred underwater, which also triggered the largest tsunami in history in Australia. The strong earthquake-induced tsunami even hit other countries around, and even Thailand, India, and , Sri Lanka, , could not escape the threat of the tsunami. Hundreds of thousands of people who were relaxing after Christmas were killed, killing 230,000 in just a few hours. The impact of this earthquake can be said to be the worst earthquake disaster in modern history.
If this earthquake in Australia rises to magnitude 10, the destructive power will be devastating. For example, a magnitude 9 earthquake is equivalent to releasing 25,000 nuclear bombs, while a magnitude 10 earthquake is equivalent to releasing 400,000 nuclear bombs. This powerful force can even double the impact of the tsunami and may destroy more land area.
Once there was a scientist named " Alex " in the United States. He made a bold guess about the impact of earthquakes. When a super-magnitude earthquake is really too powerful, will the cracks formed by the earthquake directly separate the earth into two halves?
This conjecture about " Alex " was quickly confirmed because the earthquake itself is the formation of two land plates, and such movement may cause land to rub against each other. But it should be noted that the surface of the earth will be destroyed, but the interior of the earth will remain stable. So no matter how strong the earthquake is, the core part inside the earth will not be affected and ruptured.
Assume that the earth's interior rupture due to the influence of an earthquake, but the inside of the earth, that is, the high-temperature substance stored in the mantle, will immediately impact the gap and produce a solidification effect. Therefore, no matter how high the magnitude of the earthquake on the earth reaches, it cannot completely destroy the earth's interior in an instant.
I really want to talk about the most destructive earthquake, which was the earthquake that attacked Japan's Fukushima in 2011. The magnitude of this earthquake reached magnitude 9, and thousands of people died because of this earthquake. Even the Fukushima Daxi Nuclear Power Plant was destroyed by this earthquake, and nuclear radiation was leaked. Fukushima became an uninhabitable place due to the destruction of the nuclear power plant. This is the most influential earthquake in Japan's history. Even in Russia and Beijing, my country, can feel the aftermath of this earthquake.
It has to be said that this earthquake has a great impact on humans and has caused such a huge harm to local residents. Even the nuclear radiation in nuclear power plants has been leaked.It can be said that these situations are urgently needed to be solved. Because the impact of the earthquake causes the nuclear waste to be unable to be solved smoothly, it will cause a source of environmental damage. Until now, the environment in Fukushima cannot be inhabited because the residual nuclear radiation is fatal to life.
In the face of the threat caused by earthquakes, many people will feel that based on the current human technical level, they can only be helpless. However, I believe that in the near future, people can develop instruments that can accurately predict earthquakes, so that people can prepare in advance to deal with the impact of earthquakes.
