What was the strongest earthquake in 2018?

2018’s Biggest Shaker: When the Earth Moved (Way Down Deep!)

Okay, so 2018 was a busy year for our planet, seismically speaking. Earthquakes were popping off all over the place, some causing real devastation. But if we’re talking sheer power, the heavyweight champion of 2018 was a magnitude 8.2 earthquake that rumbled way down deep near the Fiji Islands.

Now, an 8.2 sounds terrifying, right? And it is a massive amount of energy. But here’s the thing: this quake was a whopping 600 kilometers – that’s over 370 miles! – below the surface. Think of it like this: it’s like setting off a huge firecracker, but burying it deep, deep underground. You might feel a little rumble, but the impact is seriously muffled.

That’s exactly what happened. Because it was so incredibly deep, the Fiji quake caused surprisingly little damage. Which just goes to show you, it’s not just about the size of the earthquake, it’s about where it happens.

Why does depth matter so much? Well, as seismic waves travel up from the source of an earthquake, they lose energy. A deep earthquake has to travel much further to reach the surface, so by the time those waves get to us, they’ve spread out and weakened considerably. It’s a bit like shouting across a football field – the further away you are, the harder it is to hear you.

Of course, 2018 wasn’t just about the deep Fiji quake. We had other significant events that year that were far more impactful. I remember following the news about the Lombok earthquakes in Indonesia – those were truly heartbreaking. A series of quakes, some as strong as magnitude 6.9, rocked the island, causing widespread destruction and, tragically, claiming hundreds of lives.

And then there was the Sulawesi earthquake and tsunami, also in Indonesia. That was a disaster on a whole different scale. The earthquake itself triggered a massive tsunami and caused the ground to literally turn to liquid – a phenomenon called liquefaction. The devastation was immense, and the loss of life was staggering.

We also had a magnitude 7.9 quake in the Gulf of Alaska that triggered tsunami warnings (thankfully, the resulting waves were small), and a 7.1 that shook Anchorage, causing plenty of damage.

All of this just reinforces why monitoring earthquakes is so crucial. It’s not just about knowing when and where an earthquake might strike, but also understanding how deep it is, what kind of ground it’s likely to affect, and how to get people out of harm’s way. The more we learn about these powerful forces of nature, the better prepared we can be to face them.