FREAKY FACTS...to get you quaking

THE formiddable power of our Earth is seen in the wake of big shakes. Here are Five Freaky Facts to consider.
1) The largest earthquake recorded in the world in the last 200 years was the 1960 magnitude 9.5 earthquake in Chile. It caused 5700 deaths and produced a large tsunami that made it to New Zealand, flooding the Gisborne Harbour (pictured).
2) The only earthquake ever predicted was in Haicheng, China, on February 4, 1975. Few lives were lost in the 7.3-magnitude quake because 900,000 people had been evacuated.
3) The highest tsunami ever recorded hit Lituya Bay, Alaska, on July 9, 1958. It was 524 metres high, which would have swamped the world’s tallest building, the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur.
4) The biggest known earthquake in New Zealand was the 1855 Wairarapa quake. It measured 8.2 on the Richter Scale and shifted about 5000 km2 of land vertically.
5) Charles Richter, the man who invented the seismic scale, was a nudist. His wife disapproved of this so divorced him and moved to France.