The Richter scale has no theoretical limit. It has a practical limit based on limits of what energy could be released, but there is no hard this stops at 10
Someone else replied to the same person with a video link explaining the practical limits. TL;DW, the practical limit is anything past ~10+ would require massive upheaval. Not to say they’re impossible, but beyond 10, you’re likely looking at needing to adjust maps or worse.
Yea, an extinction event from a single impact would be crazy!
I seriously struggle to imagine it. Even in comparison to Tsar Bomba, the largest nuke ever detonated, which was insane, Chicxulub was several orders of magnitude worse as far as energy release.
The fact a not even all that big piece of rock could result in such insane forces is … well, it shouldn’t be surprising given the magnitude of ‘c’ and e=mc^2, but since when has any of that been completely intuitive!?
… and then there’s the impact that created the moon … and a hundred other kinds of impacts and reactions across the universe that are yet again so many orders of magnitude greater… Even if the numbers can be found, the universe truly is (almost by definition) incomprehensible.
The Richter scale has no theoretical limit. It has a practical limit based on limits of what energy could be released, but there is no hard this stops at 10
https://youtu.be/e3uk7jU3RHo
Here is a fun video talking about what quakes above 10 are like and what quakes below zero are like
and isn’t anything after 8 basically the plates unraveling?
No. There are multiple 9+ in modern history.
Someone else replied to the same person with a video link explaining the practical limits. TL;DW, the practical limit is anything past ~10+ would require massive upheaval. Not to say they’re impossible, but beyond 10, you’re likely looking at needing to adjust maps or worse.
I’ve read scientists think the Chicxulub impact may have registered a 13
Yea, an extinction event from a single impact would be crazy!
I seriously struggle to imagine it. Even in comparison to Tsar Bomba, the largest nuke ever detonated, which was insane, Chicxulub was several orders of magnitude worse as far as energy release.
The fact a not even all that big piece of rock could result in such insane forces is … well, it shouldn’t be surprising given the magnitude of ‘c’ and e=mc^2, but since when has any of that been completely intuitive!?
… and then there’s the impact that created the moon … and a hundred other kinds of impacts and reactions across the universe that are yet again so many orders of magnitude greater… Even if the numbers can be found, the universe truly is (almost by definition) incomprehensible.
I think the what if mentioned neutron star explosions at 25 in the scale.