The Tohaku earthquake that shook Japan in 2011 and tsunami that followed destroyed entire towns, killed thousands and destroyed nuclear power plants. Rated a magnitude of nine point zero, it was one of the biggest quakes recorded since 1900, but not the largest. Earthquakes are measured using the Richter Scale, which gives scientists an idea of the size of the seismic wave or ground shaking that happens. It also indicates how powerful the quake is. The scale is logarithmic, so each whole number represents ten times more shaking than the previous number. In terms of energy, a magnitude one point zero quake equals six ounces of TNT and a magnitude eight point zero quake has the power of 6 million tons. The quake holding the world record for “l(fā)argest magnitude” occurred in southern Chile near the city of Concepcion in 1960. It measured nine point five on the Richter scale, killed over 1600 people, and left over 2 million homeless. The tsunami wave it produced killed hundreds in Hawaii and Japan.