The most devastating earthquakes of the last decade and how they changed the planet’s geography

The 4th largest quake in hundred years with a magnitude of 9.1 quickened our rotation and shortened our day by 2.68 microsecond. It shifted the North Pole by 2.5 centimeters (1 inch) in the direction of 145 degrees east longitude, toward Guam in the Pacific Ocean. The quake also affected Earth's shape. It was calculated by seismologists that Earth's oblateness decreased by a small amount, about one part in 10 billion.

(Image credits: ibtimes)

Though this happened many years before, it was the most powerful earthquake recorded in earth’s history with a magnitude of 9.5. In addition to the tsunami there were other geological phenomena associated with this earthquake. There were reports of extensive subsidence that ranged from five to seven feet and alteration of the shoreline. Rock falls and landslides in the Andes formed a lake on the Rio San Pedro, the outlet of Lake Rinihue.

(Image credits: ibtimes)

An earthquake of magnitude 7.8 not only claimed thousands of lives, displacing many more, it shifted Kathmandu 3 metres southward.

(Image credits: reuters)

According to NASA said the 8.8 Richter scale disaster shifted the earth’s axis and shortened Earth’s day by 1.26 millionths of a second. The Chilean quake was a thrust earthquake, which occurs when a large section of the Earth's surface, in this case, the Nasca tectonic plate, dives beneath an adjacent plate. The fifth largest quake in hundred years temporarily redistributed mass too.

(Image credits: reuters)